Sandbox / Demian

Demian, or Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth is a 1919 Coming of Age German novel by Hermann Hesse.

Demian contains the following tropes:

• The Ace: Max Demian is not only smarter than everyone in his age group but is capable of trouncing the bully who has the protagonist in his thrall. Emil Sinclair thinks that he seems like an adult among children and forms what can only be described as a platonic crush on him.
• The Descendants of Cain: A central theme of the novel. The title character (whose forehead does have a certain brightness) speculates that the whole story of Cain killing Abel was propaganda from ordinary people who felt threatened by the genuinely gifted.
• If Only You Knew: Sinclair feels a moment of pity and resentment that his family doesn't know he's being blackmailed into petty crime by a bully; he thinks the trope name almost word for word when his father scolds him for getting his boots muddy.
• Innocence Lost: The beginning of Demian.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: Frau Eva (Max's mother) is described as having male features alongside feminine cues. She looks quite a bit like her son.
• Last-Name Basis: Emil Sinclair and Max Demian call each other by surname. Demian's mother, on the other hand, is "Frau Eva" to Sinclair almost from the start, which her son duly notes as the name people call her when they are in love with her.
• The Not-Love Interest: Sinclair develops what can only be described as an awed crush on the title character, and it continues throughout the book. When he meets Frau Eva, who looks like a feminine version of her son, he falls in love immediately.
• Stacy's Mom: Sinclair is immediately smitten with Demian's mother, who is not only aware of this but once rather unsubtly hints that he could have her if he'd just be bold enough to try.