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Part 1, Chapter 7
Themes
and Colors
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
After dinner, Johann invites his guests to join him for cigars and drinks. But first, he gives the other men a tour of the new house. He points out the passageway where delivery wagons approach the house. He also points out the cellar, which serves as a warehouse and has a pulley rope used to lift sacks of grain.
The narration describes in great detail all the nooks and crannies of the Buddenbrooks’ newly purchased home on Meng Strasse, emphasizing the house’s vastness as well as Johann’s pride in it. The structure embodies his two great loves: his family and its prosperous business.
Active
Themes
The men conclude their tour and settle down in the billiard room. Eventually the conversation shifts to the Customs Union, which Consul Buddenbrook would quite like to join. Köppen disagrees, suggesting that joining the union would compromise the firm’s “independence.” Grätjens is on Köppen’s side; he thinks that the firm’s current system is working just fine. Senator Langhals agrees, though he admits he’s no businessman.
Yet again, the men get into a quasi-debate over the changing business climate. Consul Buddenbrook looks to the future and is eager to test out new methods, whereas some of the older men are more conservative in how they do business and would prefer to stick to the tried and true methods. This reinforces the generational conflicts that surface amid a changing and uncertain world.
Active
Themes
The argument grows more heated, and the consul is relieved to see Hoffstede arrive with Pastor Wunderlich: “two dispassionate and sprightly old gentlemen from the untroubled days of the past.” Hoffstede recites a witty French epigram for the men, instantly lightening the mood.
Active
Themes
