Tonio Kroger is a writer, the protagonist of the narrative, the representative of the "spirit", who although aware of his superiority over the representatives of "life," still does not despise it, since he understands that "if anything can be done from literature poet, then just love to human, living, everyday ", and without this his voice “will remain buzzing with copper and cymbals squealing." Here the voice of Tonio Kroger merges with the voice of the author. The author's image can be seen in the mutinous writer Tonio Kreger, who stands for art, which is born of feeling and life.
Not only the thoughts of Tonio Kräger are related to the author. Many events in his life are as if taken from the biography of Thomas Mann. Thus, for example, the northern German city described at the beginning of the novel reminds Lubeck, the author's homeland. And the recollections of Tonio Kroger about his father's baroque house correspond to Henry Mann's memories of them with Thomas childhood. The hero of Manna is tormented by the thought of the dangerous effect of the soul-eating reflection on people living in a simple and natural life, not burdened by doubts. It seems to him that the kingdom of art on earth is expanding, and the realm of health and naivete is getting smaller.
Very much in Tonio Kroger, especially in Tonio teenager, reminds Ganno Buddenbrook. Like Ganno, he is the son of a grain merchant, and he holds an elected office in the city; Like Ganno, he is the fruit of a strange, unusual marriage. Tonio Kroger is also lonely and unlike all other people, respectable and ordinary. But the worldview of Ganno is absolute. Tonio is tormented by meditations, who he is - an intellectual or a businessman. Tonio is from the burgher environment, but it is dominated by an artist, for whom the whole world is a matter of comprehension, a material for the work of creative consciousness. Music, writing poems, reflections on love and suffering constitute his inner life. However, he reaches out to people who are not like him, for example, his gymnasium friend Hans Hansen, a cheerful handsome man, an athlete. Hans embodies an everyday life, absorbed in himself and his interests. Hans does not know the torments and worries that are characteristic of the creative reflective nature of Tonio.
Any collision of Tonio with real life once again demonstrates the contradictoriness of his character. The contradiction is aggravated by the fact that Tonio will fall in love with a beautiful girl, Inga Holm, who will appear on the side of life next to Hans. Nevertheless, the protagonist of the story will not disturb the joy of the merry couple - Ingeborg Holm and Hans Gansen. With admiration and melancholy, Tonio will look at the triumph of beauty, health and life. He loves these "blond and blue-eyed" not only for their beauty, but for their complete opposition to themselves. The contradiction between the surrounding world and the inner life of the writer Tonio Kroger becomes more acute with time. The essence of this contradiction is successfully formulated by the friend of Tonio, the Russian artist Lizaveta Ivanovna: "You are a burgher on the wrong path ... The errant burgher ...".
Bourgeois society refers to Tonio suspiciously and incredulously. His profession of a writer seems to be unreliable and questionable: Tonio returns to his hometown to refresh the memory of childhood, but he is almost arrested by a policeman who suspected a speculator in Germany who was searching around for him. The irony of this episode is obvious. The attempt to return to himself, to the old world, which had gone to the past, failed. Tonio himself admits to the sensations of loneliness and divinity: "I stand between two worlds, in no one feeling myself at home, and so I have to cool ..."
