The Body: A Means of Uniformity or Individuality

Tereza's opinion on her body throughout the novel is very clear. She despises it because she feels that her body makes her like everybody else. To her, the human body is not a source of individuality and expression but rather a means of blending in and adhering to convention. In some ways, it is not her body itself that bothers Tereza but the underlying message of homogeneity that comes with her anatomy.

However, although I understand the basis for Tereza's notions, I have to disagree with her perception of the body. I would argue that the body is a means of individuality and self-expression rather than uniformity.

Although unfavorable, it can be agreed that one's first impression of another is almost entirely based upon physical characteristics rather than elements of the soul such as personality and character. If someone were to spot you in a crowd, they would solely base their perceptions of your identity off of details such as your clothing, mannerisms, and behavior. Furthermore, your identity is impacted by elements such as skin color  In this way, elements of your physical appearance separate you from the rest of the crowd. If your shoelaces are untied and your hair is unbrushed, a stranger might characterize you as careless or disheveled.


This example also leads to another point made by Tereza. Tereza further expands upon her reasoning against bodies by describing the involuntary aspect of the anatomy. Of course, occurrences such as the rumbling of one's stomach are involuntary, but there are many aspects of one's physicality that can be controlled. Referring back to my previous example, shoelaces and hair are both characteristics that can be decided by a person and contribute to one's outward appearance.

Again, I understand Tereza'a viewpoint, but I also think it's important to note that there are more aspects, particularly aspects that can be controlled, which impact one's physicality and determine their individuality.

A dog's lightness

Simmlar to tomas' teenage dream life, to love a care-free light life is similar to that of a dogs life. Dogs seem to put off the aura of never-ending happiness; they life simple loves and don't have to live up to any social standards, they are light. I feel as if Tomas and Sabina aspire to live out their lives as dogs, to go through life's tasks with ease and not have to worry about living up to society's restrictions. Sabina and Tomas are trying to live up to the easiness and simplicity of a dogs life.

Art as a form of Protest

Art as a form of resistance to the United Soviet Socialist Republic is a common motif throughout Unbearable as Lightness of Being. Teresa takes pictures in the streets as the tanks are marching into the Czechoslovakia. Tomas writes article compares Oedipus and the USSR. Tomas says that they are similar, in that they both had good intentions that turned bad. Oedipus when he discovered that he had done something bad however gouged his eyes out for killing his father and sleeping with his mother. The USSR however has not punished themselves for straying from their original intentions. There were many forms of art that Czechoslovakians used to protest the USSR invasion of their home country. One of these artists was Milan Knizak. Milan was a performance artist, sculptor, and musician during the 1960s protesting the USSR takeover. 

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These are a few examples of his art. This last one was a painting he did, using his art to critique the Soviet Union. He uses the hearts inside the Hammer and Sickle sarcastically.

Weightless Sabina and Her Betrayals

The narrator's discussion of recurrence and lightness versus weight in the beginning implies Kundera's opinion about the main dichotomy of the novel. To him, Nietzsche's concept of eternal return is false because he believes that life occurs only once, which makes it light. Parmenides considered lightness positive and weight negative, which Kundera again challenges. Instead of viewing lightness as a sweet thing, he deems it unbearable. Eternal return and weight may be nerve-racking, but they give meaning to our lives. On the other hand, lightness is only sweet for a short amount of time. For example, we love to skip school and kill time, but soon enough there comes a time when you yearn for a meaningful life. Most of us want our lives to be valuable and significant. In fact, Kundera's thoughts are demonstrated right in the title: Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Sabina, the lightest character, is an evidence of the emptiness of living a light life. Her betrayals are sweet for some time, but after she betrays Franz (and love) by leaving him from Geneva, she realizes that her betrayals will sooner or later come to an end and that she does not have a clear goal for doing what she does. Also, she fears being buried in a grave as she feels no clear attachment to any land/country and dreads the prospect of being covered by weight. Her lightness has made her move constantly, and one can even argue that she has betrayed her own country.

"Her drama was a drama not of heaviness but of lightness. What fell to her lot was not the burden but the unbearable lightness of being." (122)

"The goals we pursue are always veiled."

"Sabina was unaware of the goals that lay behind her longing to betray. The unbearable lightness of being—was that the goal? Her departure from Geneva brought her considerably closer to it."

Tomas' Teenage Dream

Tomas has a very teenage outlook on life: he prefers to have the freedom to sleep with women rather than admit love, he lives a sort of "meaning less" life, and he is fairly careless. Tomas truely enjoys just sleeping with a new woman every night and not letting his realationship with the women go any further than a sexual attraction, similar to the attitudes that some teenage boys have towards relationships. Another common teenage attitude is prefer to live a restriction-less life. Tomas has the attitude of enjoying life without restriction and having a careless outlook on his life, thus Tomas acts like a teenage boy.

Isolation in a Totalitarian Society

As we discussed in class, under a totalitarian society, creative activities are strictly imposed upon by states to prevent resistance and the assembly of dissidents. Due to this imposition on self expression, people tend to feel an isolation from society and must find different activities to channel their individuality. While we were going over these topics in class, it struck me that there might be a correlation between this constraint on self expression and the acting out of several characters in the novel, particularly Sabina. Clearly, the impact of the totalitarian society is evident in the uniformity and, as Ms. Quinet said, "airbrushedness," or lack thereof, in Sabina's artwork. Sabina was trained at the academy to cover up imperfections and only reveal a superficial layer of sublimity. Because of this background, Sabina felt the need to revolt from her societal norm and express herself through her artwork.

However, I think this behavior extends to other characters as well in a less direct manner. In a way, Tomas acted out and escaped the norms of his society and political constraints through his extensive sexual endeavors. His sexually active lifestyle could be seen as a form of self expression and certainly provided him a sense of individuality. 

Tereza is also deeply affected by the constraints of the Soviet occupation, particularly its influence on her own form of self expression: photography. Tereza realizes that her photography has the ability to reveal to the rest of the world the events occurring in her own country. Photography becomes a way for her to express herself and her nation despite the harsh restrictions under a totalitarian society. 

Decisions

Only living once prohibits humans from testing their choices. Decisions are final, and there is no way to see if you made the right decision. Beings are limited in this way. Kundera on the other hand is able to move past this boundary through the novel. He uses the four characters and their different backgrounds and views on life to test decisions in life that normal humans cannot. Tomas lives a very light life in which he and doesn’t think about, whereas Teresa lives a heavy life and puts a lot of weight into the smallest details. One thing related to the idea of life as an experiment as Kundera does is the idea that we are all living in a simulation. You may be quick to throw out this idea, but it is more plausible than you may think. One day as technology advances further and simulations become more like human life and the universe, eventually a simulation of our universe will be created. If we are one day able to simulate our universe then that simulated universe will one day be able to make a simulation of their universe and the cycle will continue forever. If this is true then it is not like that our universe is the one that started it all. I know that it is not super related but the idea as life as an experiment reminded me of this.