When Hans Castorp first arrived at the sanatorium in Davos, he was just a healthy visitor stopping by to see his cousin. He planned to stay for a few weeks before jumping into his career, fully convinced he didn’t belong in such a place. Yet, Thomas Mann’s classic novel illustrates just how easily our environment can change us. His cousin warned him that time flows differently there, and slowly, Castorp began to absorb the habits of the people around him.
He spent his days immersed in conversations about medical diagnoses and an obsession with symptoms. Every minor detail of life became a potential sign of illness. Before he realized it, he had stopped being an observer and had become a patient himself, fully trapped by his surroundings.