The idea of a concentration camp serves as a symbol in The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It is used as a representation of soulless bodies, ‘one like the next’; there are no individuality that is able to distinguish them. Tereza detests this; she wants to be one who is different from others. Yet this is not an easy task trying to get her soul to surface.
The concentration camp is a reality in If this is a man, it is an attempt by the Nazis to dehumanise an entire population, to rid them of their soul. For Levi, it becomes a battle with his inner self – to keep his soul in existence as he becomes separated from the world beyond the ‘barbed wire.’
The ‘Green Wall’ and the ‘barbed wire’ are alike in the novels If this is a man and We in that the government are able to closely monitor and govern those within. Through these devices, they are able to exercise and impose control on the people, regardless of whether it is the ciphers or the people imprisoned in Auschwitz.
The idea of eternal return in The Unbearable Lightness of Being has some sort of connection with Zamyatin's belief of continuous revolution in We.
The idea of eternal return in The Unbearable Lightness of Being has some sort of connection with Zamyatin's belief of continuous revolution in We.
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