Flashback ! We go back to a time when Hans was
7 years old. This part could only be situated immediately after the “Arrival
chapters”, otherwise it would disturb the flow of the narrative with its increasing
pace.
It is not an essential chapter. Together with
some biographical info, Mann only wants to make sure that we know where Hans
morbid ( decadent ) fascination with death might come from…
- Bildung
-
People were curious about which party young Castorp would one day
embrace. Democrat ? Conservative ? Radical ?
A hint to the upcoming political and philosophical
discussions.
- HC an unwritten page…
- Time
- tradition of the old Castorp family to make past
present and the present past…
- Time expressed as a string of forefathers
- Everlasting sameness
- Death
-
early death of both Hans parents swiftly followed by that of his
grandfather
-
see the religious attitude when Hans sees his deceased father:
“…his grandfather had now received solemn dispensation
of his interim stage and had finally returned to the form appropriate to him…
-
Hans mind and senses affected by death…
-
There was something religious, gripping and beautiful about death…
-
Flowers to mask the smell of the corpse and a fly on the decomposing
body.
- Eros
( nothing )
- Geography
( nothing )
- notes
-
Old Fiete wearing two earrings: Is he an old seadog who has rounded
both cape horn and cape of good hope, washed ashore in the port of Hamburg
-
His love of cigars inherited from his granddad
-
Seven names of household heads
