Chapter 4 - Soul and Body

The loss of self through the notion of 'concentration camp' and surveillance

In the Unbearable Lightness of Being, the people are stripped of their individuality due to the Russian invasion in Czechoslovakia. People are expected to live as a Russian would, thereby rid these people of their individual identity. Tereza’s family is a microcosm of such situation, her mother attempts to seek vengeance by humiliating her. Her mother continuously speaks of the human bodies being exact same copies, that there should no embarrassment, mystery or secrecy around this subject. Tereza detests her mother’s mindset of ‘[forcing] the whole world to look’ at ‘one’s ruins, one’s ugliness’ and ‘[parading] one’s misery. In allowing her to do this, Tereza feels that she has been robbed of her privacy, her individuality and most importantly, her soul. 

The notion of concentration camp is used as a representation of a loss of self, where people live ‘crammed together constantly,’ it is a world of ‘brutality and violence,’ a world that obliterates privacy. The normalisation of this concept of concentration camp in Tereza’s life suggests that her soul, over many years has been degraded. She has lost her sense of self. She attempts to escape from this concentration camp-like life with the ‘greatest of efforts,’ to discover the uniqueness that lies dormant inside her that can differentiate her from her mother and other women.

The use of surveillance is prominent in this section in maintaining this loss of being, a loss of self. The Czech secret police is deployed as the primary method of surveillance by the Russian government in monitoring the people, particular those who have fled legislation. Conversations are recorded by means of technology, allowing for the sustainment of evidence that preserves history. ‘Trivial remarks,’ whether hyperboles that are of satirical political content or ‘dirty…filthy language’ are targeted so that they Russians can redeploy them as a weapon for blackmailing, to shame those targeted, to emasculate the trust that the community has in them.

Part 2 Chapter 23 Page 63 - close reading

• The first paragraph reflects the idea that if things only happen once, they may as well not happen at all, ‘…but no photographic documentation exists; sooner or later they will therefore be proclaimed as fabrication.’
• ‘Carnival of hate’ – carnivals are usually associated with happiness, yet this is combined with the negative connotation of hate. These contrasting dictions are used to emphasise the hate that exist in humanity.
• The setting reveals the ugly side of humanity, the painful exploration of human existence.
• ‘All previous crimes of the Russian empire has been committed under the cover of a discreet shadow.’
• Preserving history ‘Czech photographers and cameramen were acutely aware that they were the ones who could best do the thing left to do: to preserve the face of violence for the distant future.’
• Photographs serve as a symbol for the preservation of history. It is through the ‘[shots]’ taken by photographers that, the ugly, negative side of humanity can be revealed.
• The passage is told in a first person narrative, resulting for a very detailed description of the setting. This allows the readers to be able to imagine the scene, to almost experience ‘violence,’ the primitive characteristic of the human nature.
• At times of war, politics fail, it is only through the ‘lenses’ of ‘Czech photographers and cameramen’ are the people able to fight against oppression.

The idea of books as a device for escape

For Tereza, books are seen as an 'imaginary escape from reality', this is similar to that of D-503, where he uses his diary to unleash his inner feelings and desires that ultimately led to his realisation of his individuality. Tereza find that books are a 'single weapon' against an unsatisfying world surrounding her whereas D-503 initially writes for the Integral, but ultimately, he  awakens to his own self.

Part 8 Chaper 2 - Soul and Body

The character of Tereza carries the idea of eternal return, she is a ‘continuation of the gesture by which her mother cast off her life,’ she is simply without her mother’s immodesty. 

Section 8 of Soul and Body sums up Tereza’s fears, she longs to be someone completely different from the image of her mother’s as she would become ‘occasionally upset at the sight of her mother’s features in her face.’ 

For Tereza, books act as an ‘imaginary escape’ from reality, they are able to offer her the comfort and the satisfaction away from an ‘unsatisfying’ life. Through her books, she is able to become ‘differentiated … from others.’ Here, Kundera inserts an authorial comment – a dandy’s cane makes him more ‘modern and up to date,’ yet Tereza’s book makes her seem ‘old-fashioned.’ Despite this, they are alike in that they both stand out from a mass amount of bodies. (We – D-503 longs to stand out amongst the mass of ciphers, to discover his soul, oppressed by the One State’s government.)

Her desire to be her own individual results in her love for a man whom she has never met. Tereza falls in love with Tomas simply because ‘neither her mother nor the drunks’ knew. This suggests that she is attempting to be as different as she possibly can from her mother’s image. She longs to find the soul that is buried itself deep inside her body, because only by the emergence of her soul, is she able to discover ‘a body unlike other bodies’ and become ‘lighter.’ (We – D-503’s attraction to I-330)

The meeting of Tereza and Tomas is simply due to chance. It is because of chance that when Tereza first saw Tomas that he is surrounded by all the things that she considers beautiful and satisfying, the books, the music of Beethoven and the cogac.

The first connections...

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.

Record 8 - Close reading

Record eight explores the irrational root - square root of -1. D-503 is scared of this 'foreign, alien' irrational number that cannot simply be comprehended as it 'was beyond ratio.' He fears them, to the extent that he 'wants to build a little wall' around it. As readers, it may seem silly that he has this attitude towards a simple number; but for D-503, this is normal since he has been brought up believing that everything is rational and 'logical.' Yet, ironically, D-503 uses this irrational number subconsciously to provide reasons for unexplainable concepts.  Perhaps, this use is due to the government imposing the belief that all things can be explained by mathematics on its citizens. However, this is contradictory as Zamyatin uses repetition to convey that D-503 wants to '[tear] that [square root of minus 1]' out of himself, to 'stifle [the] damned [square root of minus 1]' in order for him to once again, be at peace with himself. Internal conflict is thereby created within D-503, it is this that is taken advantage of by I-330 and results in his betrayal of the One State later in the novel. At this point, it is almost as though I-330's influence is subtly affecting the ways in which D-503 thinks. Earlier in this novel, he believed that 'it is a given' that he and all the other ciphers are 'permanently [part of] a quadrilateral predicament.' However, he begin to feel that sometimes it is good to relax for 'a short time in this simple strong triangle', formed between R-13, O-90 and him which is 'not [perfectly] equilateral.' Conformity is still being illustrated, however this time, it is slightly different from the previous sections in the novel as D-503's attitudes towards uncertainty, irrationality and the unknown begin to change.

Record five

Rereading the novel We by Zamyatin, I have noticed many things that I missed out in my first reading.

Record five is a chapter with rich details. At the beginning of the record, the One State is likened to 'a quadrilateral', to the ciphers, it is 'a living and beautiful square.' Quadrilaterals vary from regular to irregular, here, Zamyatin uses the most special case - a square to convey the equality within the One State. A square has equal sides, this illustrates the confinement of the ciphers within the One State. Additionally, the citizens are likened to 'four equal angles', this is used to emphasis the uniformity of the One State. It is important to note that in a square, all angles are at a right angle; even here, rationality is shown, the One State revolves around logic and perfection. However this concept of equality is 'just a given, every day,' that all the ciphers are 'permanently in that same sort of quadrilateral predicament.' Here, limitation of knowledge and the boundaries determined by the One State's government have resulted in the citizens being extremely satisfied with their 'utopian' society where everything is built on the fundamental 'equivalent of four angles.'

'Bliss and envy' are supposedly the two items that make up 'the fraction known as happiness.' To achieve total happiness, enviousness must be completely eliminated so that the fraction can be 'transformed into a glorious infinity.' Enviousness is a primate human nature, it has 'remained' after the Two-Hundred-Year-War despite the One State's attempts to create equal beings. This is result of the subtle differences that are inevitable in society, 'noses are still "button" noses and "classical noses', 'some has achieved the love of many [while others] achieved the love of none.' However, being a totalitarian society, after eradicating the problem of hunger, the One State conquered the 'masters of the world - against love' in order for the state to be logical and fully 'mathematicised.' Love is an intimate subject, by the government's exertion of control over this, totalitarianism is pushed to the extreme.

• 'four-pawed X, inside me' - Already, I-330 has created an influence on D-503, though at this stage he does not realise this. This serve as a 'forewarning' of 'future catastrophes' and rebellion.
• '...beyond the bounds of my preselected keywords for this record. But then I decided: I won't cross out anything.' - Subconsciously, D-503 begins to challenge the laws of the One State, he goes beyond the boundaries that the One State's government has imposed on its people.