Philosophy Salman

End note about the metamorphosis:

In the story, somebody is being pushed without let-up out of the human world (greggor), plus at no point nobody thinks “this is all impossible”, they all seem to take it in stride. And yet, greggor manages to display his humanity. So that, notwithstanding the ending, it’s possible to say that the story suggests that there is a place for humanity and that as human beings, we have a distinct place in the world where we find ourselves.

This is different than what we saw in heart of darkness, which displayed the human condition as bleak.

Written by Thomas mann

Written a bit before metamorphosis. Thomas lived through the second world war. He is the second one of our authors who lived through both world wars (the other one was Brecht). He came to the u.s to escape the fascist gov. and settled in southern California. After WW2, he went back to germany, which is where he was born and grew up; the language he wrote was german. He went on to win a nobel prize in literature (keep in mind that the nobel prize is only given to living people, so for example: kafka could’ve been a candidate for a nobel prize, but he was dead.). He was one of the most prominent, influential, and overall significant german authors for the last 100 years

As this happened after WW2, we can see a theme of destruction (like in heart of darkness for example, Brecht also went through WW2…).

Tonio Krueger is of the genre: Bildungsroman… bildung is a word that is used for education, it means something like the formation of the individual human. Roman is a word that means novel. This type of genre has to do with the growth of an individual from a child to maturity, like a “coming of age” novel… this is what we find in tonio kruger, his growth/maturation from a child, as well as his artistry.

The german author who actually begun the bildungsroman is named Goethe.

Tonio kroger

It begins with tonio as a young buy. He lives in northern germany along the North Sea (Baltic sea).

Tonio’s father was strict and was somebody who is somewhat introverted, not very outgoing, somewhat cold (these are actually characteristics which are thought to typify the people from northern germany). He is a successful businessman. Also, he occupies some sort of civil position as he has the title ‘council’.

The contrast between northern and southern german people is that the southern germans are warmer, and more outgoing.

This differentiation between people of one part of a country and another is a common thing.

Tonio’s mother is from somewhere in the south, most likely Italy and is an artist. The name Tonio is Italian, though his last name Kroger is german.

So, all things considered, she is more outgoing than the father.

Both sides are going to develop in tonio, which are going to lead to some difficulties.

While tonio is a young boy, we meet Hanz. Hanz is popular, handsome; northern german. He is good at everything a young german boy should be good at: hes athletic, ect… You could say that Hanz is the “poster child” for northern germany. Tonio strongly admires hanz because of his popularity, ect…, he would like to be like hanz.

There is another side/ingredient/factor in how tonio sees hanz. Hanz doesn’t like to read any of the books he is supposed to read. Tonio already like to read poetry. Although he admires hanz, he looks down on hanz at the same time because hanz doesn’t take interest in art/literature. This other side from which tonio sees hanz comes from his mother as she is an artist. You can look at this like an internal conflict with his identity.

Hanz is willing to hang out with tonio. When you look closely though, hanz calls tonio Kroger when other people are around (the german name). This is an indication that hanz may be embarrassed about tonio not being from northern germany. (tonio doesn’t have the northern german looks… also because of his mom)

This idea of conflict with identity is constant within our readings, where human beings belong.

We also meet Ingaborg while tonio is a young boy. She has blonde hair, blue eyes… she is northern german. She is popular, and good at everything a northern german girl should be good at. She can be looked at the poster girl for northern germany. She is the female version of Hanz.

Tonio has a strong crush on Inga. Inga on the other hand doesn’t know Tonio exists… The point at which “its over” is when they are in dance class. The boys and girls go to separate sides of the room. Tonio ends up in the wrong group though, he ends up with all of the girls. This is extremely embarrassing, and so tonio decides to run off. He expects that inga will run after him and console him about what happened, but she is back there laughing with all of the girls. The dance instructor is also laughing. Tonio just disappears…

Time went by, and he forgets about inga. He feels the need to achieve remarkable things. So, by pursuing his interest in writing and literature (coming from his mother’s side…)

Tonios father dies eventually, and the mother sells the house. She also marries again. Tonio is now old enough to move out, and he decides that he is going to move elsewhere. He decides to move towards the south (his mother’s direction…), he moves to munich (southern germany). While he is munich, he meets up with a woman, who is also an artist. They begin an intimate relationship, and they move in together. Her name is lisaveta (probably spelling this wrong… look up the name). She is a painter. He writes, she paints. They talk about their art. One day they realize they have a big difference between them when it comes to art.

Note: munich is known for its art in germany.

The difference is this: tonio has some reservations about being an artist. Tonio doesn’t particularly like the way that artists use other people’s live as raw material for their art. He doesn’t like how they use other people in that way. He doesn’t like how “the artist eliminates the person” by using them as raw material. If you think about it, this has to do with his favorable regard with people who aren’t artists. It has to do with his regards with people who were “naturals” (not artists… like hanz). This is coming from his father’s side. Again, this displays his internal conflict again.

As far as lisaveta is concerned, the artist has to be ruthless for the sake of the art. She is not concerned with tonio’s thought. She calls tonio a bourgeois manqué. This is effect is a double insult. It means middle class (this was an insult because it was thought that the middle class don’t have the strength of the upper or lower class and all they want is to be of the upper class.) manqué means to miss. When used in the expression, it means you should’ve been… So, shes saying that he should’ve been a bourgeois, she is saying that he is failing at being mediocre.

Tonio decides that he is going to take a break. He is going to go off and head for a small hotel located in Denmark (note that he is heading north now…), on the shore. He is going to try and get it together and sort everything out. On the way to Denmark, he stops at his old hometown. He goes to his old home, where he grew up with his parents. There is nobody living there, the house has turned into a library. Nobody recognizes him though. All the time that he is there (his hometown?), he is not recognized. Only at one point the police think they recognize him because they think he is wanted. Evidently, Tonio looks like the guy on the wanted poster.

Remember that the story is about identity, and this is a case about mistaken identity. The fact that nobody recognized him suggests the idea that “you cant go home anymore” because itll be different than what you remember it to be… it changes. Now, the conflict of identity is no longer in his hometown, its in him. It is no longer where he started out, it is inside tonio.

The police get it figured out, and they let him go. Tonio goes off again on his trip, and gets to the northern tip of germany. Tonio heads for the port in the North Sea. Now tonio is on the ferry, he steps outside so that he can get some fresh air. He sees a young man who is taken away by the night sky and starts talking about it poetically. Tonio hears this and one hand he is happy that the young man is doing this, but on the other hand he sees that the way the young man is doing it is not elegant, its not amusing (these are the two sides. Mom and dad). he thinks well of the young man, but at the same time he sees the language the young man is using amusing.

The ferry gets to Denmark, the disembark from the ferry. Tonio continues to the hotel so that he can think things through. He checks in, takes his room. While he is there, a tourist bus pulls up and a bunch of tourist checks in as well. Hotel management decides that they will have a dance for the guests. Tonio goes to the dance.

A couple of things happen here that trigger memories of his from when he was a child. For one thing, he sees two people that remind him of hanz and inga because they looked like they were from the north.

The second thing that occurred is that a woman trips (this reminds him of when he was on the wrong side of room, also reminds him about the girl who liked him), Tonio immediately steadies the girl. From there, he writes a letter to lisaveta.

“shadowy human figures who are begging me to cast a spell to set them free” are the characters in the novels that he is going to start writing.

The letter shows that as a result of the dance and the two people who look like hanz and inga, all the memories flow back to him. At this point tonio reaches his maturity as a man and as an artist.

When you think about what, what precipitated and stopped him from being very “north german” was his art. There was a longing for him to be an artist. He wanted to make his mark as an artist. At the same time though, his art is also what allows him to deal with the conflict and reach maturity.

Imagination is an ability or capacity that allows us to work through the type of conflict that can take shape when you ask yourself about your own place in the world. Imagination is the ability that allows us to work though the type of conflict that can take shape when you ask

Imagination is not necessarily just fantasy. That why works of art/literature can possibly open possibilities in our own lives. There is a cross over when reading the books. We understand the books based on our lives, and we also understand our lives based on the books. Thus, the books/arts can open possibilities in our own lives.

So far, our cast of characters include tonio Kroger, greggor samsa, john marcher, kurtz and marlo, galileo, job, and Antigone.

In effect, we have been looking at different imaginative interpretations/representations of a human having a distinct place in the world.