Buddenbrooks

Main Ideas

• The disintegration of a patriarchal family under the influence of societal modernization
• The conflict between commercial success and spiritual values
• Depiction of the social and economic decline of the bourgeoisie
• Illustration of the internal and external causes of the family business's collapse
• The search for meaning in a changing world
• The issue of heredity and the influence of ancestors on the fate of descendants
• Understanding history as a process of decline and degradation