Buddenbrooks: Part 2, Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Tony’s taste for the finer things in life becomes more apparent as she grows up. She indulges in life’s luxuries but doesn’t want to work for them—reasonable enough behavior for a young child, it speaks to some degree of entitlement that Tony doesn’t seem to be gaining any sense of personal responsibility as she ages. The insinuation that people compare her to her hardworking cousin Klothilde reinforces Tony’s comparative laziness.

In the novel, yellow (and blond) tends to represent moral decay or moral shortcoming, while blue represents honesty or clarity. Tony’s blond hair and blue eyes thus reflect her overall moral ambiguity. Her wealth and privilege have eroded some of her morals, making her vain and shallow; yet there is still an underlying earnestness to her, especially in her youthful innocence. This chapter also introduces the Buddenbrook family’s rivalry with the Hagenströms and with the general drama that goes on in the high society to which they and the Buddenbrooks belong. The initial publication of Buddenbrooks notably caused quite the scandal in Lübeck’s high society, as patrician families recognized real people in the characters depicted in the novel, though Mann insisted the novel was a work of fiction.