The Theme of Politics in Milan Kunderas the Unbearable Lightness of Being - Thesis Example

9 May The Theme of Politics in Milan Kundera’s “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera is a philosophical novel that explores the life of Czechoslovak society in the course of the Prague Spring of 1968. Naturally, such an endeavor would be impossible without paying attention to the political problems of Czechoslovakia of that time. In this essay, I will try to examine the functioning of the theme of politics in “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, with special attention being paid to the influence of politics on the development of major characters of the novel. The direct mentioning of politics is first found in the beginning of the novel, when Tomas and Tereza discuss the possibility of immigrating to Switzerland after the entry of Soviet army to Czechoslovakia in August 1968. Tomas is seen to have received an offer for a job from the Swiss hospital, and Tereza urges him to leave Czechoslovakia, despite his initial misgivings about the feasibility of such a step (Kundera 26-28). The novel’s depiction of the character’s reaction to Soviet occupation is telling; Tereza spends a lot of time in the street, filming possible abuses of Soviet troops on camera, and even getting arrested by the Soviet officer, while Tomas contemplates the emigration to Switzerland. It is inferred that Czechs received the news of Soviet troops’ entry to their country with both fear and ridicule: while the citizens of Prague clearly felt indignation over the effective arrest of Dubcek and other reformist leaders of Czechoslovak CP, they are at the same time fearful of the possible consequences of rebellious attitude. Even while the streets are decorated with “thousands of hand-painted bearing ironic texts” sharply critical of Brezhnev and Soviet army (Kundera 28), and Kundera remarks that the atmosphere in the city was that of “a drunken carnival of hate” (28). Nevertheless, the citizens of Prague are said to have received the news of compromise between Brezhnev and Czechoslovak reformists with relief, due to the fact that “the executions and mass deportations” to Siberia were feared most of all (Kundera 28). The return of Dubcek to Prague is described in the symbolic tones: he is portrayed as a “devastated” man, “stuttering and gasping for breath”, and Kundera compares his state of mind to that of Czechoslovakia in general, observing that henceforth, the country would “gasp for air like Alexander Dubcek” (Kundera 28). This might indicate that Kundera and his characters viewed the defeat of the Prague Spring as a beginning of the “workaday humiliation” (28) for their country. Nonetheless, Tomas and Tereza did not live for too much time in Zurich. Tereza’s inability to live through the life abroad and her feeling of the burden she was for Tomas in the new circumstances made her decide to return to Prague, despite the continuing presence of foreign troops there (Kundera 31). This event shook Tomas greatly. He found out that he missed Tereza and, despite his reluctance, Tomas decided to follow her and return to Prague. His dialogue with Genevan doctor reveals that Tomas believed that, even though this decision is a hard one, given the political circumstances, he should make it (Kundera 35). While Tomas returns to Czechoslovakia, he sees “columns of Russian tanks” (Kundera 36), and actually hesitates, mulling over whether his decision to return to Prague is totally justified. However, he still feels compassion for Tereza and cannot bear that she should live in Prague alone, while he resides in Zurich, and so he returns and meets Tereza in their flat, while seemingly losing all enthusiasm about his return (Kundera 36). The second important allusion to political problems in the novel is found in the beginning of Part 2 (“Soul and Body”), when the author presents an account of early life of Tereza. He mentions that Tereza’s father, “the most manly of men” (Kundera 45), was greatly despaired by Tereza’s mother decision to leave for her new lover, and began voicing “openly what was on his mind” (Kundera 45). This led to him being arrested and imprisoned for a lengthy term. His flat was confiscated, and Tereza was sent to her mother and her lover, who came to live in a small provincial town (Kundera 45). The author notes that Tereza’s father later died while in confinement. This episode, even though it lacks clearly political message, shows an impact of political purges and criminalization of dissent upon life of Tereza, with the loss of her father making her dependent on her mother and forcing her to lead a parochial lifestyle her mother followed. The arrest and death of Tereza’s father may have contributed to the early submission of the character to her mother, as Tereza felt her guilt of being born from the union of her mother with the man who proved irresponsible to her. The political elements are seen also in a story about the beginning of Sabina’s non-realist paintings, told by Sabina herself to Tereza. Sabina showed her one of her old canvas that depicted steelworks under construction, and said that she was first drawn to non-realist style when he accidentally dropped some red paint on the canvas, turning a building site itself into a backdrop for something abstract and invisible (Kundera 99). She mentions that such innovation was seen as potentially disrupting for “socialism”, and therefore she had to conceal this canvas from her Academia mentors. That episode demonstrates the conflict between Sabina’s creative spirit and rigid orthodoxy of Czechoslovak “socialist realism”, which underscores the sense of resentment felt by the characters towards the dominant trends of art in socialist Czechoslovakia. The motive of photography as a living memory is present in the next “political” episode of the novel. Kundera observes that, unlike previous aggressive acts of Soviet government, the suppression of the Prague Spring was documented by “both stills and motion pictures”, and is therefore bound to remain in popular and global memory (Kundera 70). He narrates how Czech photographers and cameramen did their best to “preserve the face of violence for the distant future” (Kundera 70). Tereza took part in this drive, photographing various “compromising situations” the Soviet troops found themselves in (Kundera 70). Her photographs were rather popular among Western journalists who sought for each and every bit of information they obtained from Czechoslovak territory. In fact, the very fact of photographing became a part and parcel of resistance to Soviet occupiers, with the visual commemoration of the invasion playing important role in overcoming of the fear induced by it. Kundera also pays great attention to the “carnival” side of the reception of Soviet invasion among Czech public. He presents a depiction of the photographs of “young men… racing around the tanks and waving Czech flags on long staffs, of young girls in unbelievably short skirts provoking the miserable sexually famished Russian soldiers by kissing random passersby” (Kundera 71) as a symbol of ambivalent perception of the Soviet invasion by common Czechs, a perception that mixed a sense of tragedy with “a curious… euphoria” (Kundera 71). Consequently, Tereza and Tomas are astonished, when they visit a small and inconspicuous town outside Prague and see that various names of the streets here are replaced by pseudo-Russian equivalents, making them wonder whether the “carnival” side of resistance did not go too far in undermining the sense of “real” identity of Czechoslovakia (Kundera 177). Political motives are also presented in the narrative of Sabina’s rebellious nature. It is revealed that she felt deeply traumatized by her father’s puritanical attitude to life and art, and when she graduated from her school, she left for Prague, hoping to become a painter and follow Cubist style of fine arts. Sabina perceived Cubism as an embodiment of rebellion against her father, as the latter spoke of Picasso’s paintings derisively. Therefore Sabina strove to follow this style precisely because of overtones of “betrayal” of her fathers it evoked for her (Kundera 96). However, Sabina soon discovered that official socialist realism of Communist Czechoslovakia contradicted her freedom-loving spirit, and that “Communism was merely another father, a father equally strict and limited” (Kundera 97). Sabina’s decision to get married to eccentric actor who was loathed by “both fathers” reflected her sense of defiance both to socialist realist conventions and to traditional patriarchal family values that were embodied by her father. Sabina’s later quarrel with political emigrants was caused by her skepticism towards their bellicose speeches concerning the necessity of armed struggle against Soviet occupiers. She observes that the leader of these emigrants, a “man with artificially waved gray hair” (Kundera 101), admonished her for her alleged passivity in the same manner as Communists did when they assessed each citizen’s adherence to the perceived models of proper behavior. On her way back home, she tries to understand what really binds her with the other Czechs, eventually concluding that she does not have a reason to feel her connection with her nation and that her individuality has more value for her than allegiance to certain social group, whether political or ethnic. Sabina recalls her negative feelings about demonstrations and membership in Communist youth organization back in Czechoslovakia, when she was forced to repeat slogans and sing the songs she did not know or understand. The author contrasts her bad feelings about demonstrations and all cases of forced collectivities in general, with the enthusiastic attitude of her lover, Franz, who loathes his level life in the comfort of university career and longs for demonstrations as a true form of social collectivity. Kundera notes that, while for Sabina her personal life and solitude was an expression of her individuality as opposed to forced participation in political life, Franz believed that demonstrations and political activity were the only real relief from a monotony of his academic career, as he “yearned to step out of his life the way one steps out of a house into the street” (Kundera 106). Franz was greatly infatuated by various revolutionary movements in the Third World. The author mentions that he “sympathized with Cuba, then with China” and, when he became disillusioned by Maoist cruelties, Franz “resigned himself…to a sea of words with… no resemblance to life” (Kundera 110). His meeting and love affair with Sabina was an expression of certain reaching out to a country where revolutionary fervor was still alive, as opposed to dull comfort of Switzerland and the West in general. Nevertheless, their views on life were rather different for them to be in a complete harmony. Franz loathed the well-ordered life of the university professor, dreaming of stormy life in the whirlpool of the revolution. Sabina, on the contrary, did not perceive revolutionary activities and struggle against oppression as something romantic; she disliked participation in the political events, demonstrations and parades to such an extent that she could not bring herself to repeat the slogans of Parisian demonstration against Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, for she believed that it was a mindless repeat of common slogans that breeds all kinds of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes (Kundera 107). Franz continued to take part in different activities of left-wing intellectuals, striving to be part and parcel of “Great March”, until he was heavily beaten by the robbers in Bangkok after he returned after the failed march of doctors and intellectuals to the Cambodian border, protesting against Vietnamese ban on entry of medical supply to this country. The untimely death of Franz symbolizes the tragic futility of West European intellectuals’ attempt to bring justice on Earth by their own efforts, against the indifference and cynicism of the others. In total, the political theme in “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” is rather strong, exploring the impact of political events and controversies on the development of main character of the novel. The author remains skeptical, yet sympathetic, both to political individualism of Sabina, and to patriotic and revolutionary feelings of Tomas and Tereza, as well as of Franz. However, in general Kundera voices criticism of all attempts to change the social life by collective political means. Works Cited Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel. Trans. Michael Henry Heim. 2nd ed. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2009. Print. Read More