Consider connection with ‘We’
Lack of privacy- listening to conversations:
The concept of lack of privacy and invading a person’s private space to defy the individual and create a collective society is used in both ‘We’ and ‘The unbearable lightness of being’. Kundera uses the socio-cultural setting of the novel to highlight and reflect the inner and more personal lives of his characters in an attempt to convey different ideas and perceptions. Kundera uses the setting of the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia which reflects Tereza’s lifestyle with her mother, in order to convey the idea of lack of privacy which results in conformation to the collective.
The setting of Czechoslovakia with the secret police recording conversation in houses shows the invasion of a persons private space in order to inspire a conforming in society. They ‘steal’ the ‘words’ which are then manipulated and used as a weapon on the people with the intention to shame them and undermine the trust that community has. This is reflected in Tereza’s own personal life with her mother, who acts as the soviet police and broadcasts Tereza’s diary to her friends in order to shame her and rid her off her own privacy and individuality by divulging her personal life to her friends. The taking away of privacy and free thought to reveal the individuality of the soul destroys its uniqueness and speciality as it is known by the rest of the community, it becomes common knowledge opposed to the mystery of her inner-self. This is shown on a macro scale by the invasion of Czechoslovakie in which the soviets try to rid the Czech population of their orignonal identity to transform them into a conformed collective under the regime of the USSR.
Idea of humility and shame which rids an individual of their orignionality due to the rejection from the community to the private and personal ideas of an individual. Renders the inner mentality to collapse and conform to the society and collective in order to be accepted by the community. Shown through Terezas mother’s attempts to humiliate her infront of the public in order to defy her own belief in the ‘soul’ and to solidify the notion of the world as simply a ‘concentration camp of bodies’. This is also shown by Kundera through the capture of Dubcek, and his speech to his ‘humiliated nation’. The concept of humiliation and shame reduces the power of an individual and therefore his own origionalitym conforming him to the collective. The Czech people listening to his speech are described as being ‘humiliated by his humiliation’, emphesizing the idea of loss of power of the people which is inspired by the exchange of power from the Czech government to the soviet police.
This concept is also reflected in ‘We’ with the community of OneState, which maintains complete control over the Ciphers through controlling communication and ways of living. The ciphers live in glass houses which destroys the concept of private life and individuality as it is seen by all of the others in the state. This creates the concept of conformitism and the collective, which is the essential grounds of their society. The lack of the individual’s thoughts and emotions creates a more compact and efficient machine of power, as it destroys the concept of a ‘soul’ and the search for inner desires and diverse opinion, which is an essential part of individual mindsets.
Conentration camp:
The motif of the ‘concentration camp’ is depicted through both ‘If this is a man’ and ‘The unbearable lightness of being’ in order to emphesize the loss of individuality to the conformed collective. Kundera uses the inner life of Tereza and the reflection of the bugging of Prochazka’s study in order to introduce his own perceptions regarding ‘concentration camp’. Tereza uses the term tto ‘expresshow she felt about life with her family’, which shows that this concept doesn’t purley relate to the ‘brutality and voilence’ which accompanied it in the death camps during the second world war. It also depicts Kundera’s own idea that a concentration camp can be seen on both macro and micro levels, which is emphesized through Tereza’s concept of the concentration camp as being the ‘complete obliteration of privacy’, which is caused by her mother destroying her ‘right of shame’ and who expresses her diary and privacy to the micro-public. In the novel they are robbed of the divine spark of their ‘soul’ which defines their individual nature. This portrayal of a concentration camp, shows that the loss of individuality and privacy to a collective which is identical is the main concept which inspires fear. The fear of being unrecognizable, being stripped of every possession which creates the individual. Primo Levi also discusses this idea in his novel ‘If this is a man’, in which the setting depicts this idea of the concentration camp and the loss of the individual. In the novel he is ‘stripped of every possesion’ which defines him as different from the others and which allows him to consider himself ‘a man’. This can be seen through the loss of the name, of clothes and even of hair, rendering each man like the next. Loss of identity and privacy discourages hope in the prisoners and allows them to be treated as a lower race by the Germans. This loss of identity and of diverse personality is what creates the depressing and fear inspiring nature of the camps as one ‘loss[es] himself’ through being unable to express his own nature. He is not defined by his own personal self but by the collective and therefore fails to retain personal thought and conduct, creating this loss of self.
Body is not a necessarily a representation of the soul:
This idea of the body not necessarily being a representation of the soul is shown by Terezza’s desire for her body to be a ‘poster for her soul’, which contrasts that of her mother, who sees everyone a being ‘soulless’ and being largely similar. Kundera uses the character of Tereza to portray his own perception on the soul in regard to the body, as she tries to observe her ‘soul’ through her body, which she believes is a representation. However when in the Sauna with the other women, she is introduced to a woman who she describes as being ‘four pouches’, and therefore admits that the soul is not always conveyed through the appearance, otherwise she would have a ‘monstrous soul’. This is also shown through Terezas desire to ‘dismiss her body’, and to ‘stay with Tomas only as a soul’. This shows her jealousy and displeasure at her body in being unable satisfy Tomas fully without the use of his mistresses. Tomas sees every woman physically in the same light with the same physical desires, which causes conflict with Tereza’s ideology as she wishes for him to see her soul through her body, making her body individual and unique. Therefore creating her desire to remain as a ‘’soul’, which shows the individuality of her nature and allows her ignore his infidelities and desires of the flesh, which ‘can be extended to any woman’ as the body becomes simply a transport and ‘cage’ for the soul.
This idea is also depicted in ‘We’ as all of the ciphers are dressed in Yunnies and are forced to shave their heads in order to convey the idea of a complete identical collective. This concept of the collective in which the individual is not identified shows the idea that the soul is not depicted through the body, as all bodies are believed to be equal. However in ‘We’ this concept of equality and similarity is taken to the extreme and used both physically and mentally on the ciphers, resulting in the mechanical aspects of the ciphers, who are controlled to the extreme. This idea of the body not reflecting the soul is also used to create the ‘dehumanized’ nature of the ciphers, who act simply as ‘functions’ who are all simply part of the whole, instead of human beings, separated by their thoughts and lifestyles.
Body as a servant to the soul- body essentially light whereas the soul is the weight
Another idea which is expressed in both texts is the concept of the body being simply a ‘machine’ which is a transport for the ‘soul’. In ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ the body is depicted as being essentially ‘light’, which is shown through Toma’s numerous erotic friendships and mistresses. Tomas ‘desires’ women sexually however he initially tries to escape all mental connection and ‘compassion’ for women mentally. Kundera also emphesizes this idea by showing the materialistic quality of bodies and their similaritoies, making the world simply a ‘concentratiom camp of bodies’. This is contrasted with the idea of the soul which is described as the ‘anchor of the body’ and which is used in defining the individual. This idea of the body being simply a ‘pannel to display inner emotions’ is also used in ‘We’, where the ciphers are portrayed as ‘humanized machines’. This concept is imposed on them through the totalitarian regime of the OneState society, which strips the ciphers of their individual thought, appearance and lifestyle, making each like the next. This idea of the conformation of the collective and the rejection of the ‘I’, emphesizes the idea of the body being simply a tool as the ciphers are used as ‘functions’ of the state rather than humans. With the apex of their considered humanity as having a mechanic mentality free of all human emotion and reasoning. The importance of the soul in defining the individual is portrayed through the charater of D-503 and the discovery of his inner humanity. D-503 is claimed to have the ‘sickness of a soul’, which is reflected through his actions and thoughts regarding himself and the society around him, and which creates a barrier separating him from the rest of the ciphers, ‘there was a thick curtain separating my life from theirs’. Both texts depict this concept which shows the importance of the soul in creating the individual and reflecting the inner humanity of people which differs within each person. It also conveys the significance of the ‘heaviness’ and impotance of the soul in creating an individual person, which is made up of both mind and body. Whereas the body is simply a ‘machine’, similar to the collective, which is defined by the soul. In both novels, Kundera and Zamyatin depict their perception of the human body through the main characters struggle for individuality against the collective in society.
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