Thomas Mann's Tonio Kroger begins with the main character Tonio meeting his friend Hans Hansen. Both boys are fourteen years old. Tonio is hurt that Hans is not as happy about taking a walk together as Tonio is. We learn that both boys come from wealthy families. Their fathers are well-respected in the community. Tonio lives with his family in "the finest house in all the town" (76). From Mann's description of them, we see that Tonio is less attractive than Hans, and that his walk tells us that he is not as comfortable with himself or with the world as Hans is. It is clear that
Tonio loved Hans, and had already suffered much on his account. He who loves more is the inferior and must suffer; in this hard and simple fact his fourteen-year-old soul had already been instructed by life, and he was so organized that he received such experiences consciously, wrote them down . . . inwardly, and even . . . took pleasure in them (77).
Tonio plays the violin. He loves things of nature---a fountain, an old tree, the North Sea---and things of the spirit. Just as he tries to bring art and life together, and life and love, he tries to bring nature and spirit together within himself. He also tries to bring these things together in the poetry he writes. His poetry brings himn ridicule from others, and he sees that his poetry is "extravagant and out of place" (78), but he cannot stop wrtiing it. His father disapproves of his romantic ideas, and his mother does not care. His father is "fastidious" (78), while his mother is "dark and fiery" (78), and shows "blithe indifference" to him.
Tonio wonders why he is different from everybody else. He is not "regular" like them. Hans is completely opposite---a good student, level-headed, popular, and good at sports and other normal activities. Tonio both loves and envies Hans for his normalness and beauty, but Hans does not love Tonio in the way that Tonio loves him.
Then we meet Ingeborg Holm, blo...