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Part 5, Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Buddenbrooks, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family and Sacrifice
Tradition, Modernity, and Change
The Protestant Ethic
Personal Fulfillment and Self-Knowledge
Pretense and Etiquette
Summary
Analysis
In February of 1856, Christian returns home after eight years away. He wears a yellow plaid suit and looks in equal parts “embarrassed” and “preoccupied” when Bethsy hugs him. At the consul’s grave later, Christian mocks Tony when she kneels before the grave to pray. He and Thomas have both inherited the reserved, withdrawn affect characteristic of their “solid middle-class heritage.”
Throughout the book, the color yellow book symbolizes concealed moral corruption, making Christian’s yellow plaid suit especially garish in light of the consul’s recent death. It’s not appropriate attire for mourning by a long shot. Even so, Christian’s reserved affect at his late father’s grave shows that he hasn’t disregarded his “solid middle-class heritage” entirely. He believes in keeping up appearances in some regards, if only out of habit.
Themes
Christian gets over his grief faster than the others. At dinner one night, he asks Tony if the local theater is any good these days. Tony doesn’t know—she hasn’t had much interest or energy to care about leisure. Christian ignores Tony’s sadness and instead gushes on and on about his love of the theater and about all the actors he met while abroad. He remains oblivious to the others’ disinterest in his rambling. After dinner, Christian walks over to the harmonium in the corner of the dining room and pretends to play. Like most of his family, Christian has no talent for music, and his act sends Clara rolling with laughter.
Christian’s behavior is totally inappropriate given the dismal occasion that has brought him home. The antics he engages in at dinner make clear that whatever reserve he mustered at the consul’s graveside was the exception rather than the rule. From the start, the novel has set up Christian and Thomas as each other’s opposite, and their different personalities and values become increasingly pronounced as they age.
Themes
Alone with Thomas later that night, Tony remarks on Christian’s obnoxious behavior. Thomas agrees—Christian has no self-control and says whatever is on his mind, not seeming to register how it affects others. Tom pauses and then admits that he has tried out “that sort of useless curiosity and preoccupation with one’s self”—but it only made him feel poorly and “out of control.” Such a mindset might work for some, Thomas reasons, but all Buddenbrooks “are just simple merchants” by nature. They might engage in the occasional self-indulgence, but what they’re really good at—and what they should stick to—is buckling down and getting their work done. Tony agrees.
Tony has a tendency to be superficial and self-absorbed, so it’s especially telling that even she feels Christian’s outrageous behavior inappropriate enough to comment on. Thomas’s response succinctly describes the character his forebearers have taught him to aspire to, one who prides himself in being industrious, self-disciplined, and tactful in all settings. Thomas tries to embody these traits in everything he does, whereas Christian does exactly the opposite.
Themes
