Duty,Pride, And Merit In Thomas Manns Buddenbrooks Essays

Duty,Pride, And Merit In Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks Ana Coleman October 11, 2001 History 225 Theories of Familial Duty in Thomas Manns Buddenbrooks The novel Buddenbrooks was written by Thomas Mann in 1901. He was born in 1875, soon after the unification of Germany. He wrote several books, short stories, and essays for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. With the advent of World War II, Mann left Germany and lived the rest of his life in San Diego until his death in 1955. Manns novel, Buddenbrooks takes place in Lubeck, (Northern Germany) from 1835 until roughly 1875-76. The novel opens with the Buddenbrook family having a dinner party. It is a sort of housewarming party for the Buddenbrooks who have recently moved to one of the biggest homes in the town after the previous owners, the Rastekamps, are forced to sell and leave the town after their firm fails. We learn that the Buddenbrook family is one of the most powerful merchant families in the town, enjoying its height of wealth and prestige. We are introduced to Johann Buddenbrooks, the patriarch of the family, but soon see that it is Jean, his son, that is truly in control of the familys affaires. In the very first part of the book it is evident that the decline of the family is already beginning when Johnanns first son, Gotthold, (from his first marriage) sends three letters demanding a larger share of the family business. Gotthold has married below his station, sent away with his inheritance, an d ignored by the family. As the book continues, we learn that the primary characters are really Jeans children, Tony, the oldest child, and Thomas, the middle son. The third son, Christian, manages to bring only embarrassment and loss of money to the Buddenbrooks family. Clare, the youngest daughter is hardly mentioned; she is a pious, serious girl who marries a pastor. The novel spans four generations, but most of the action follows the lives of Thomas and Tony Buddenbrook, the third generation. Tony Buddenbrook grows up a very privileged and pretty girl. At the age of 18 or so, a businessman named Grunlich asks for Tonys hand in marriage. Tony becomes so depressed at the idea of marrying Grunlich that her parents send her on a vacation to the Baltic Sea. She meets a young medical student named Morton Schwarzkopf. They fall in love with each other, and it is because of Morten that Tony begins to see and understand the social class system; to see why people want to change the status quo, and that sometimes people need to sacrifice themselves for a higher cause. Tony returns home speaks to her father, looks in the family Bible at the significant events in the Buddenbrooks family history, and realizes that she must marry Grunlich out of duty to her family. Tony marries Grunlich, a few years pass, Tony has a daughter named Erika, and then the walls begin to collapse around her. It is discovered that Grunlich has made his money by actually borrowing money on the credit of the Buddenbrook familys reputation. Tony leaves her dishonest and bankrupt husband, divorces him, and moves back home with her family. Thomas, the second son, follows in his fathers footsteps, taking over the Buddenbrook firm and reinvigorating it with his youthful ambition and ideas. The Buddenbrook family is still regal and respected. Thomas marries well, Gerda Arnoldson, a childhood schoolmate of Tonys, and is soon made both a consul and a Senator. With this new power and prestige comes more r esponsibility and anxiety. Tony marries again, this time an older man from Munich, but this marriage too, ends in divorce after Herr Permaneder retires on Tonys dowry, and is then caught in a liaison with the maid. Things for the Buddenbrook family look up when Thomas and Gerda have a son, Hanno, named after his great-grandfather. As the only heir to the Buddenbrook name and fortune many hopes and expectations are forced upon him. Erika Grunlich (Tonys daughter) faces a similar marital fate as her mother. She marries a man named Hugo Weinschenk, has a daughter, and then her marriage too falls apart after Weinschenk is convicted and incarcerated for insurance

Free Essays on Viking

The Viking age has long been associated with unbridled piracy, when freebooters swarmed out of the northlands in their longships to burn and pillage their way across civilized Europe. Modern scholarship provides evidence this is a gross simplification, and that during this period much progress was achieved in terms of Scandinavian art and craftsmanship, marine technology, exploration, and the development of commerce. It seems the Vikings did as much trading as they did raiding. The title "Viking" encompasses a wide designation of Nordic people; Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians, who lived during a period of brisk Scandinavian expansion in the middle ages, from approximately 800 to 1100 AD. This name may be derived from the old Norse vik(bay or creek). These people came from what is now Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, and had a self-sustaining, agricultural society, where farming and cattle breeding were supplemented by hunting, fishing, the extraction of iron and the quarrying of rock to make whetstones and cooking utensils; some goods, however, had to be traded; salt, for instance, which is a necessity for man and cattle alike, is an everyday item and thus would not have been imported from a greater distance than necessary, while luxury items could be brought in from farther south in Europe. Their chief export products were, iron, whetstones, and soapstone cooking pots, these were an essential contribution to a trade growth in the Viking age. The contemporary references we have about the Vikings stem mainly from sources in western Europe who had bitter experiences with the invaders, so we're most likely presented with the worst side of the Vikings. Archaeological excavations have shown evidence of homesteads, farms, and marketplaces, where discarded or lost articles tell of a common everyday life. As the Viking period progressed, society changed; leading Chieftain families accumulated sufficient land and power to for... Free Essays on Viking Free Essays on Viking The Viking age has long been associated with unbridled piracy, when freebooters swarmed out of the northlands in their longships to burn and pillage their way across civilized Europe. Modern scholarship provides evidence this is a gross simplification, and that during this period much progress was achieved in terms of Scandinavian art and craftsmanship, marine technology, exploration, and the development of commerce. It seems the Vikings did as much trading as they did raiding. The title "Viking" encompasses a wide designation of Nordic people; Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians, who lived during a period of brisk Scandinavian expansion in the middle ages, from approximately 800 to 1100 AD. This name may be derived from the old Norse vik(bay or creek). These people came from what is now Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, and had a self-sustaining, agricultural society, where farming and cattle breeding were supplemented by hunting, fishing, the extraction of iron and the quarrying of rock to make whetstones and cooking utensils; some goods, however, had to be traded; salt, for instance, which is a necessity for man and cattle alike, is an everyday item and thus would not have been imported from a greater distance than necessary, while luxury items could be brought in from farther south in Europe. Their chief export products were, iron, whetstones, and soapstone cooking pots, these were an essential contribution to a trade growth in the Viking age. The contemporary references we have about the Vikings stem mainly from sources in western Europe who had bitter experiences with the invaders, so we're most likely presented with the worst side of the Vikings. Archaeological excavations have shown evidence of homesteads, farms, and marketplaces, where discarded or lost articles tell of a common everyday life. As the Viking period progressed, society changed; leading Chieftain families accumulated sufficient land and power to for...

Pharmacokinetics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Pharmacokinetics - Essay Example Ceftriaxone is classified as a third and fourth-generation cephalosporins. This spectrum of third and fourth-generation cephalosporins varies considerably and before administration, it is important to confirm based on culture and susceptibility testing before use. They are active against a broad range of gram-negative bacteria and moderately active against gram-positive bacteria’s. Ceftriaxone has a molecular weight of 661.59 with a chemical formula of C18H16N8Na2O7S3†¢3.5H2O. This formula has been illustrated below. The drug is a white to yellowish powder in crystalline form that is readily soluble when put in water, partly soluble in methanol and ethanol. Its PH of a 1 percent aqueous solution is 6.7. However, its color is bound to change depending on its length of storage, the concentration utilized as well as the diluent. It is provided in vials containing 10 grams of the drug to be reconstituted (Garot et al. 2011, p. 760). The drugs average plasma concentration after administration following a 30 minutes intramuscular administration of a 0.5 (350 mg/ml or 250mg/ml) or 1gram dosage and intravenous administration of 0.5, 1 and 2 grams dosage is illustrated in Table 1 below. From the illustration, it is clear that the drug is completely absorbed following intramuscular administration. The mean maximum concentration of the drug occurs between 2 to 3 hours after the drug administration. Thus following an intramuscular administration it is completely absorbed with a T  max of 2-3 hours (Blumer 1991, p. 52). It is distributed in most of the fluids in the body i.e. bones, kidneys, biliary tract, joints and lungs. 33 to 67 percent of the drug is execrated in urine as an unchanged while the rest is secreted in the bile and found in feces as inactive drug compounds. The drug elimination half-life over a 0.15 to 3 g dosage ranges from 5.8 to 8.7 hours. The drug apparent volume of distribution ranges from 5.78 to 13.5 L, a plasma clearance of 0.58 to 1.45