Beneath the Wheel

Hans Giebernath resides in a peaceful Black Forest village with the stuffy and respectable townspeople in Hermann Hesse's novel Beneath the Wheel. He is pressured to pursue serious scholarship by the entire town when it is learned that he is an unusually brilliant student. Hans faithfully adheres to the study schedule and never-ending exams; nonetheless his achievement is only rewarded with harder tasks. Hans starts to consider options outside the academic community's strict boundaries when he encounters a disobedient young poet. After being finally taken home due to a psychological breakdown Hans is revived by nature and romance and swears never to go back to the academic system's dreary conformity.