Yellow Symbol in Buddenbrooks

The color yellow appears prominently throughout Buddenbrooks, though its symbolism shifts depending on context. In general, the narration uses the color yellow (or blond, or gold) to represent moments or items of significance, whether it’s calling attention to a symbolically important object, a particular personality trait of a character, or tracking how a character or item has changed over time. Yellow typically has a negative connotation, though not always. The narration repeatedly refers to the “yellowed” pages of the Buddenbrook family records. Tony often refers to Grünlich using his most recognizable feature, his “golden muttonchops,” as shorthand. The Buddenbrook children’s light yellow hair grows duller or muddied over the course of the story as they age and become more bitter or disillusioned.

Yellow Quotes in Buddenbrooks

The Buddenbrooks quotes below all refer to the symbol of Yellow. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

She wept bitterly when the time came to say farewell to her little Johann. He embraced her: then, putting his hands behind his back and shifting his weight to one leg while balancing his other foot on the toe, he watched her depart; and his gold-brown eyes rimmed with bluish shadows had the same brooding, introspective look that they had taken on when he stood beside his grandmother’s corpse, when his father died, when their grand old home was broken up—or on so many other occasions, which had less to do with life’s external events. As he saw it, old Ida’s departure was consistent with the other instances of decline, dissolution, and termination that he had witnessed. That sort of thing no longer astounded him—had never astounded him, strangely enough. Sometimes, when he would raise his head with its curly brown hair and flair his nostrils fastidiously, his lips slightly twisted as always, it looked as if he were cautiously sniffing the air and the atmosphere of life around him, expecting to catch a whiff of that odor, that strangely familiar odor, which the fragrance of all those flowers beside his grandmother’s casket had not been able to overpower.

Related Characters: Elisabeth “Bethsy” Buddenbrook , Hanno Buddenbrook, Ida Jungmann, Gerda Buddenbrook (née Arnoldsen), Thomas Buddenbrook

Related Symbols: Yellow

Page Number and Citation: 677-678

Explanation and Analysis:

This passage describes Ida’s heartfelt goodbye to young Hanno after Gerda—with a cold lack of sentimentality—lets the Buddenbrooks’ longtime domestic worker go after Thomas’s death. Ida’s emotional state as she says goodbye to Hanno conveys the deep and unwavering loyalty she has had for the Buddenbrooks through her years working for them. More interestingly, however, is Hanno’s lack of emotion as he bids farewell to the woman who has cared for him all his life. Hanno regards Ida’s departure casually as though it were nothing to him: “As he saw it, old Ida’s departure was consistent with the other instances Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae e

Yellow Symbol Timeline in Buddenbrooks

The timeline below shows where the symbol Yellow appears in Buddenbrooks. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Tradition, Modernity, and Change Theme Icon

...them off. Outside, the wind is so strong that it’s practically raining sideways, making the yellow oil lamps flicker. After everyone has left, the consul heads upstairs to at last approach... (full context)

The farther back the consul goes, the more aged and yellow the record’s pages become. He turns back to Johann’s account of his marriage to Josephine,... (full context)

Tony Buddenbrook has grown into a beautiful girl, with thick blond curls (which grow darker as Tony grows older) and “lively gray-blue eyes.” On school days,... (full context)

Personal Fulfillment and Self-Knowledge Theme Icon

...a pastor, too—and orders Anton to invite the man in. Anton obliges, and soon a blond man in his 30s enters the garden. In a soft, respectful voice, Grünlich apologizes for... (full context)

...Tony and Grünlich at their home. Grünlich himself is quite busy, leaving in their “little yellow buggy” for work each morning and not returning until late at night. They rarely go... (full context)

...the lantern-lined path to the terrace, Buddenbrook is horrified at what he sees: Lebrecht Kröger’s “yellow, ragged, deeply furrowed” face—the face of an old and sickly man. Buddenbrook runs from the... (full context)

...a while as the last bit of blue in the sky fades away and the yellow furniture in the room appears “dulled.” Suddenly, everyone feels a sharp drop in air pressure—and... (full context)

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... (full context)

...desk—Thomas must have left them there. Hanno flips through the pages, which are by now yellowed with age. He sees his own name written next to his birthdate. Impulsively, he takes... (full context)

...agitated. She has fear in her eyes, and her face has taken on a sickly, yellow hue. At last, she reaches Thomas’s house and gets straight down to business. It’s Weinschenk:... (full context)

...a pastry shop. On his first morning there, he awakes in his room, “bathed in yellowish daylight,” feeling content and rested. (full context)

...One day, he brings a book of philosophy into the garden and reads the book’s “yellowed pages” for hours. He reads with great interest, though he doesn’t entirely understand everything. One... (full context)

Yellow Symbol Analysis

Yellow Quotes in Buddenbrooks

Part 11, Chapter 1 Quotes

Yellow Symbol Timeline in Buddenbrooks