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ENG 122 (CA16) Students:

Enter your work on this text as prescribed in class.

Find some study questions (as first seen on your reading-checks) below:

· Why did Tereza’s mother hate her?

· What lesson did Tereza’s mother try to teach her about their bodies?

· What might be the significance of Tereza’s dream? What might it mean?

· On page 66, Sabina’s painting(s) are described. Discuss Sabina’s paintings. How were they supposed to be done and how did she actually do them. What does this tell us about her (hint: truth versus lies)?

· Discuss the scene with Sabina, Tereza, the bowler hat, and the photo shoot. What double purpose did the camera serve?

· Kundera tells the peculiar story of Tereza’s mother and her nine suitors (44). a.) What is a “suitor” and b.) why did she marry the ninth one?

· Tereza’s mother and stepfather had very abnormal household habits when they were all home together (47). Explain what a.) her mother and b.) stepfather did that annoyed Tereza (Each one different).

· Tereza loved books and always carried one with her (50). a.) How did she think that this made her appear to others and b.) how does the narrator say this actually made her appear?

· In Part 2 of Kundera’s novel, the narrator discusses the difference between a university graduate and an “autodidact” (58). Part of your instructions for this class is to read with a dictionary. a.) what is an “autodidact” and b.) which character is one?

· In several places of BOTH parts 1 an 2, the narrator recounts the bizarre details of Tereza’s recurring dream (59). Describe what is happening in her dream. (Do not interpret, only describe).

· Quotation: “He often stopped in for a visit, but only as a friend, never as a lover” (85). Identify WHO is the “he” spoken of here and WHOM this person went to “visit.”

· Quotation: “Once upon a time, in the early part of the century, there lived a poet. He was so old he had to be taken on walks by his amanuensis” (86). Identify WHO is telling this story and what an “amanuensis” is.

· Quotation: “Because she was a painter, she had an eye for detail and a memory for the physical characteristics of the people in Prague who had a passion for assessing others” (105). a.) Identify WHAT particular “physical” characteristic the speaker of this quotation noticed in Prague citizens who assessed others and b.) WHO she used as her most famous example (person’s job description will be okay in lieu of their name).

· Quotation: “ ‘It was there that I began to divide books into day books and night books,’ she went on. ‘Really, there are books meant for daytime reading and books that can only be read at night’ ” (112). a.) Identify WHO is speaking in this passage and b.) WHEN or WHERE this person began this peculiar habit.

· Quotation: “Marie-Anne began whistling a tune. The painter was speaking slowly and with great concentration and did not hear the whistling.” (114) a.) Identify WHO Marie-Anne is and b.) WHY she was whistling.

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Alicia Roddenberg
Dr. Hobbs
Eng 122 CA16
03-25-09
Feeling of being trapped
From Milan Kundera’s “The unbearable lightness of being” one of the main characters is Tereza, who is very similar to the narrator in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Though Kundera’s work is a novel and allows for Tereza to be a full round character, Gilman uses the first person point of view to allow for a lot of information to be known about her character. In both stories the Theme helps to represent the characters, if the structure of the story was different the characters would be affected differently. Both of these women in Kundera and Gilman’s works are feeling entrapment in there lives, yet they are abiding by what is requested from their partner.
Kundera’s work “The unbearable lightness of being” is arranged with an omniscient narrator and told in a non sequential order. Though at times the reader many feel lost, at the end of the story it all becomes clear. Gilman presented her story “The Yellow Wallpaper” in a completely different format. The narrator is a major participant who is telling the reader her own story. As the narrator writes of her experiences you read what she writes. This allows for a close understanding oh how the character actually feels. Kundera develops his story in a different manner. He is reluctant to tell who is narrating the story, but give great detail in most of his characters. Tereza has a background story developed as well as her emotions and feelings are shown.
Both main characters in Kundera and Gilman’s stories are woman of mid-thirties, who at this time of their lives are married. The two women are relatable because of a specific feeling they have of being trapped within the life they are currently living. Though Kundera’s Tereza never admits she is trapped in her lifestyle, it is obvious when Tomas sends her up the hill to determine her already predetermined fate. “It would have been easy to say “No, No! It wasn’t my choice at all!” But she could not imagine disappoint Tomas” (Kundera 159). Tereza is always looking to please Tomas, and rarely herself. There is a point in the story where Tereza does as Tomas does by having an affair; she is extremely hesitant until she sees the book of Sophocles’ Oedipus. “It made her feel as though Tomas had purposely left a trace, a message that her presence here was his doing” (Kundera 164). If Tereza had not felt that push from Tomas, she would never have betrayed him.
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gilman, we do not know the name of the narrator, just that she is a woman married to a physician named John. “I sometimes fancy that in my condition, if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus- but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad” (Gilman 83). The woman is concealed in the top bedroom of a colonial mansion all summer because isolation was supposed to be a rest cure. The room in which she is supposed to rest in is covered by this horrid wallpaper “I never saw a worse paper in my life. One of those sprawling, flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin” (Gilman 84). She is being kept in this room by her husband, which is similar to Teresa’s story in Kundera’s work. She is in fear of being a hassle to her husband so regardless of her happiness does as she is told.
Both Tereza and the narrator in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” are set to please their partners, even if what is pushed upon them isn’t in there best interest. Gilman’s narrator after being forced to stare at the wallpaper everyday begins to feel apart of it, that she came from it. The feeling of being trapped is literal and figurative in this story; she is trapped within the room as well as her own mind. Tereza from Kundera’s “The Unbearable Lightness of being” though betrayed by the man she loves daily, knows what her life would be without him, and for that goes against her better judgment and stays with him believing that their love is strong enough. The endings to both of these stories are completely different. Gilman’s narrator locks herself in the room, where she proceeds to lose her mind alone as she waits for her husband to return, where as Kundera has Tereza and Tomas grow old together regardless of what he had done to her.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper”. A Prentice Hall pocket reader Literature.
edited by Mary McAleer Balkun. Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2005. pages 82-96.
Kundera, Milan. “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2008.
Roberts, Edgar V. Writing about Literature. Brief 11th ed. Saddle River, NJ: Pearson,
2006. page 155-69.

Allyn Tuff
Dr. Hobbs
English 122 CA 16
4-25-2009
Comparison of Franz from Unbearable Lightness of Being and Jackie from First Confession.
In First Confession, Frank O’ Conner writes about a boy named Jackie is faced with the stress of his first confession to the Catholic Church. In comparison, Franz from the novel Unbearable Lightness of Being is also faced with the stress of a confession, but this confession has to do with his wife. The comparison between these two is that they both have to make a life changing confession to someone of great importance to their lives, but what I want to focus on is the similar sequence of events that happens to both of them. They are terrified but determined to make this confession, and during the process they both are set back, but get back into it and complete the job.
“I was scared to death of confession” (O'Conner 235) said Jackie. Jackie has been convinced that he has to make a perfect confession or else he will go to hell. The problem is that he has sinned a lot in his seven years of life, and doesn’t know how it could ever be possible to confess the right way with all of those sins on his first time. Of course it doesn’t help when his sister says things like “Isn’t it a terrible pity you weren’t a good boy?” (O'Conner 235) Jackie is faced with an ordeal that he has to eventually overcome or else he is threatened with the eternal life of hell. When Jackie gets to the confessing booth, he is confused and didn’t know what to do. Because this happened, the Priest got upset and sent him to the end of the line to go last. This was a very big letdown for Jackie, but he sticks to the plan to confess instead of giving up. When he gets back to the booth, he found that the priest was very helpful, and he confessed very appropriately and ended up only getting three Hail Marys. Jackie completed what his goal was to do, and was happy with his outcome.
“From the time Franz met Sabina, however, Franz had been living lies” (Kundera 121) said the Milan Kundera, the author of the novel Franz is in. Franz is tired of the lie he has been telling his wife. He has been having a separate relationship with a mistress named Sabina for quite some time. Franz finds that he is not in love with his wife, but in love with Sabina. He knows he has to tell his wife about the second relationship, but he is scared that his wife will take it horribly bad and hurt herself like she threatened to do before. Franz finally comes to the conclusion that he is going to confess his secret to his wife, and stay with Sabina for the rest of his life. Once Franz finally confesses to his wife, Sabina left town never to be seen again, leaving Franz devastated. Sabina felt as though “Franz had pried open the door of their privacy.” (Kundera 124) Once this happened, Franz could have gone back to his wife and lived another lie while pretending he loved her, but he knew he wouldn’t be happy. He then made the best of the situation and found a house by himself, became a professor, and lived contently.
The comparison I would like to prove is the sequence in which both situations happened. First part of the sequence comes from Jackie and Franz both building up the courage to make the confessions. Jackie was extremely scared to make his confession because of the thought of going to hell. This took him a lot of courage to go and make that confession. This is similar to the courage it took for Franz to confess his second lover to his wife. He, like Jackie, was scared of a bad consequence, and this was his wife hurting herself. The second part of the sequence comes from the set down, or “the fall.” When Franz finally confessed to his wife, he found that Sabina had packed up and left town forever. This is similar to Jackie and when he went to the confession booth, messed up, and made the priest send him to the back of the line. Both situations were very big let downs for the two of them. The third similarity to their sequences is overcoming their let downs. When Jackie was sent to the back of the line he could have gave up, but her didn’t. He went back into the booth and ended up making his confession very good. This is similar to Franz because Franz could have easily gone back to his wife and lived the lie, but he decided to move out and start a new life as a professor and became content. Both of them ended up reaching their goals and living joyously.
Franz and Jackie are two very different characters. Some people probably would find no similarities between the two of them at all, but that is the beauty of literature. When you have stories to go along with characters, you can still find similarities between them. In this case it was by the sequence that they came about reaching their goals. They both faced a life changing confession, got set back while doing so, but overcame that setback and reached their goal happily.

Works Cited
Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. New York City, New York: Harper & Row Publishers Inc., 1984.
O'Conner, Frank. "First Confession." Roberts, Eger V. Writing About Literature. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006. 233-238.

Sonia Perez
Dr. Lee Hobbs
Academic Writing 2 Eng122 CA16
31 March 2009

Unexpected Love

In The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera and “The Bear” by Anton
Chekhov, the authors develop the theme,unexpected love, throughout the stories. Kundera writes about Tomas and Tereza and Chekhov writes about Mrs. Popov and Smirnov. The characters and the situations they go through show how love can occur unexpectedly. Tomas and Smirnov from each work has had some bad experiences with women, but they have different reactions.
Each author addresses the obstacles that the characters face because they have fallen in
love. One character that Kundera writes about is Tomas, who is a doctor and is divorced from
his first wife. Because of the divorce, Tomas is afraid of women but still desires them, and he
has many mistresses. On the other hand, in “The Bear”, Smirnov hates women, but he too had many women. In the beginning, he just uses the women, and when he starts to fall in love with them, the women cheat on him. So Smirnov hates them and wants nothing to do with women in the past. Both of these characters has faced rejection by women, but they have different reactions to them.

In both of these works, the characters fall in love unexpectantly. Tereza and Tomas meet at the restaurant where Tereza is a waitress. She leaves Prague and goes to Tomas’s flat. “They made love the day she arrived. That night she came down with a fever and stayed a whole week in his flat with the flu” (Kundera 6). Tomas is cautious of Tereza since no woman stays in his flat, and he takes care of her. During this time, Tomas had compassion for Tereza, which turn into love and he does not know if he wants her in his life. In contrast, Chekhov’s characters meet because Mrs. Popov’s deceased husband owes money to Smirnov. Smirnov is rude to Mrs. Popov since he does not want any woman into his life. They get into a heated discussion in which Mrs. Popov insults him. He challenges her to a duel, and she accepts and gets the pistols. “…she accepted my challenge! To tell the truth, it was the first time in my life I’ve seen a woman like that…” (Chekhov 267). Since Mrs. Popov shows that she is not like the other women it leads to Smirnov to fall in love with her. All of the characters fall in love because of a situation, yet their situations are different. Because of Tomas and Smirnov are
rejected by women, they had different situations of how they fall in love. The Unbearable Lightness of Being and “The Bear” are two works in which one of the themes is unexpected love. Tomas and Smirnov’s experiences, it is difficult for these two characters to fall in love. Chekhov and Kundera have some general ideas about unexpected love and many of their ideas are the same. Yet, both authors had different ideas about situations that bring love to people and people to love.
Works Citied
Chekhov, Anton. “The Bear”. Writing About Literature by Edgar V. Roberts. Brief 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2006. 261-69.

Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008. 6-12.

John Winans
Eng 122
Dr. Hobbs
26March2009
Born to be Lucky, or not
It was at banquet in London in honor of one of the two or three conspicuously illustrious English military names of this generation. (Twain, 242) It is in this starting line of the story Luck by Mark Twain that introduces the idea of naming some prestigious characters and their comparisons. A certain Lieutenant-General Lord Arthur Scoresby, a name that has been thrown around several thousand times in the life of the narrator to date is a major interest and honorary member of the banquet. Unlike Thomas in The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera who worked hard to earn a name for himself and having to protect his birth name was a complicated soul. One fell into situations governed by luck as an outcome and the other was just lucky to fall into certain situations. Both were human and had purpose.
In the military, on the field of battle, sons, fathers, brothers, uncles, grandfathers, linked by the maleness that they were born with yet affiliated by the uniforms they wore. In the wisdom of the reverend, in Luck, the hero is a fool, a secret revealed just in time for honorary mention. The narrator explains: “This verdict was a great surprise to me. If its subject had been Napoleon, or Socrates, or Solomon, my astonishment could not have been greater. (Twain, 243) To be mentioned with great names in history such as these would be more than the average man could endear. Even Caesar would be proud, but these names lived up to them with the acts of heroism committed on behalf of others, whereas the honored banquet guest was at the right place at the right time, chalk it up to luck.
Thomas on the other hand lives by the “Es muss sein” motif of Beethoven. To interpret this would mean “it must be”, a motif Thomas was destined to stick with. Then again, the metaphysical thesis of Parmenides’ philosophy would have it positive going to negative not light going to heavy. “It is my feeling that Thomas had long been secretly irritated by the stern, aggressive, solemn “Es muss sein!” and that he harbored a deep desire to follow the spirit of Parmenides and make heavy go to light.”(Kundera, 210). Thomas had something to prove, he had something to live for something that had to be said, he used his profession as his means to do this, his name to say what had to be said, he did what had to be done. He worked with the human body as a doctor and even studied the brain, this led him to the individualities between not only men and women but among humans and the decisions that affects life.
Scoresby could not tell the truth, Thomas could not lie. “The “tell the truth!” imperative drummed into us by our mamas and papas functions so automatically that we feel ashamed of lying even to a secret policeman during an interrogation.” (Kundera, 201). Ultimately, a lie will be confronted with the truth and others will know the true self. As for Thomas and Scoresby, they’re peers may be persuaded to believe what they hear and see but the inner self, the “I”, will be revealed within time, after all in the words of Beethoven, “Es muss sein”.

Works Cited
Twain, Mark. “Luck”. Edgar V. Roberts. Writing About Literature. Brief 11th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2005. 242-45.
Kundera, Milan. “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” First Olive Edition, 2008 New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd St., New York, N.Y. 10022. Olive Editions, 2008.

Brittany Thunberg
Dr. Hobbs
Academic Writing II CA16
29 March 2009
“The story of an Hour” vs. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Short story “The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin, and novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera are two works that differ greatly. Each work is written in its own unique way and holds its own special characters and plot line as well. However one aspect that seems to stand out as being similar between these two works is their protagonist. The main character in both of these stories is a woman who is in an unhappy marriage.
Mrs. Mallard is the protagonist in “The Story of an Hour.” One of the main conflicts within this short story is the fact that Mrs. Mallard finds out her husband has been killed in a tragic accident. “She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!” (Chopin 205) The reader would assume that Mrs. Mallard would be distraught about her husband’s death but she is in fact overjoyed with the fact that her husband has passed. At this point in this short story the reader can assume that Mrs. Mallard is in an unhappy marriage. The fact that Mrs. Mallard is happy that her husband is dead, sends up a red flag to reader’s that her reaction is not normal and she must be suffering in an unhappy marriage.
In the novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, one of the main characters named Tereza is in an unhappy marriage as well. Tereza is faced with the problem of infidelity throughout almost her entire marriage. “Each time he lay down next to his wife in that bed he thought of his mistress.” (Kundera 88) Although Tereza is aware of her husband’s infidelities committed against her, she stays in the marriage anyway. Tereza, although aware that her husband is cheating on her, stays within the marriage because she wants keep her husband close to her out of fear. The reader can sense Tereza’s love for her husband even through hard times.
Mrs. Mallard and Tereza have similarities; they also have differences as well. Although they are both clearly in unhappy marriages the way that they feel toward their husbands are different. Although Tereza is angered by her husband’s infidelities she never seems to readers that she hates her husband. Although readers can tell that Tereza is unhappy, she never wishes harm against her husband Tomas, and she always shows him respect. This is different from Mrs. Mallard because her hatred for her husband is apparent to readers when she is not fazed in the least by her husband’s death but instead strangely excited. “She was drinking in a very elixer of life through that open window.” (Chopin 206) The protagonist in each work is in an extremely similar situation, however their feelings toward their situations as well as their actions convey to reader’s their significant differences in personality.

Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.”Writing about Literature by Edgar V. Roberts. Brief 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson 2006. 205-06.)
Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 2008.

Chris Collier
Academic Writing II CA 16
Dr. Hobbs
March 25, 2009
The Similarities and differences of Eddie and Tomas; Two Primary Male Characters of Two Works of Literature
There are many differences between Milan Kundera’s “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” and Sam Shepard’s “Fool for Love”. “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” is a novel, and “Fool for Love” is a drama for example. Kundera’s novel is set in Eastern Europe, while Shepard’s play is set in the Western U.S. The cultural backgrounds of both works vastly differ accordingly due to their locations as well. Yet apart from these superficial differences, Shepard’s Eddie, and Kundera’s Tomas share one strong similarity: their twisted sense of romantic loyalty.
In Kundera’s novel, Tomas sleeps with over one-hundred women. In Sam Shepard’s play, Eddie sleeps with one or more women, however at their core they both love the women they are involved with romantically. To each man, being loyal is not a physical bond or obligation, but a deeper more mental and emotional connection and linkage. Eddie and Tomas both were separated from the woman they love at one point or other in the story, yet both of them either returned to or ventured to find the woman he loved. Both of these men’s definition of loyalty is quite different than the women they love. May and Tereza have more of the traditional sense, while Eddie and Tomas see loyalty as being there for a woman, not neccasarily being monogamous.
The differences only become apparent in either man’s thinking when it becomes apparent the actual necessity of the women in their lives. Eddie is always abandoning May, leaving her to fend for herself. He only seems to want May when he needs her, not when she needs him, but that is only an aspect of his twisted loyalty. Eddie’s loyalty is more that of a prisoner to his own lust than to love. Tomas on the other hand, needs Tereza because he is insecure. He needs Tereza to be around him, to make a certain part of his personality and mind be complete, he also feels sorry for Tereza at some point or other throughout the book. His loyalty though, could also be seen from a prisoner’s perspective, that he is chained to her weak emotions and personality.
While each of the men’s reasons for being loyal may be different, their definitions of loyalty are very much the same. Each man has a sense that he should be with the woman he loves. Although this sense of love does not include the same passion that they feel for other women, as said before, their definition of love depends on the feelings and emotions they have for the women. The bond and the link that they cannot escape, much like a prisoner, and finally the idea that they are allowed to have physical relations with other women so long that the one they love remains there for them.

hello...loved your blog. I'm am English Lecturer and research scholar from India. Just added your blog rss to my blog. will visit often..thanks.

@Alicia Roddenberg:
Quite a contemplated comparison. I enjoyed reading Kundera's The Unbearable lightness of being, but now i think i must read Gilman as well. Nietzsche's idea of eternal return where an individual is trapped in the cycle and Kundera's perspective to it ...is very well depicted in this review.

I'll get back to other entries and reviews of this work once i get time. Thanks.

Mary Strand
Dr. Hobbs
ENG 226
April 12, 2010

Entry Ticket

If Thomas was an existentialist, what would his philosophy of life be?

Thomas is a pleasure seeking man and with his hedonistic ways, the question of “why” he is living and what it means, would probably be easy for him to answer, in jest, but not in seriousness. I believe his hasty “why” would consist of success in business and in “erotic friendships”; which were the soul of his happiness. What life means, well I think he would say that life is short, so why not make it sweet.
The narrator makes known that Thomas could acquire any woman he wished, and he did so freely. This was the ultimate pleasure that Thomas could control, and go about it with no strings attached. Until he met Tereza… For some reason he grew attached to her, and had no immunity to the powerful force she had over him. After meeting her he was not sure what he wanted out of life, or his relationships. On page 8, Kundera writes that Thomas felt as though he was not a real man, because he felt he could not live without her, and did not know how to control or understand that feeling. A hedonistic man, like himself was not used to an uncontrollable desire that changed his reckless ways. The three three’s he lived by were totally disrupted when Tereza came into his life and his life and existence became controversial because of it.
Thomas’ philosophy of life does not ever seem to change throughout the story. He constantly struggles to figure out what it is that wants in and out of life… but who does not? I do not condemn him for his unsure attitude, but living a weightless life can leave a person lost and confused, as Thomas was.

Katie Ganning
Dr. B. L. Hobbs
ENG226: Survey of World Literature II
13 April 2010
You Cannot Have One Without the Other
1. Why do you think Milan Kundera names certain chapters with the opposite meaning of one another? Ex. Soul and Body?

As much as people try and attempt to separate body and soul or weight and lightness, one needs both in order to makes certain events in life work. When he asks the question of weight and lightness and which one is better to live, one is able to realize that you cannot have one without the other.
When Tereza left Tomas, she felt as if she was “weighing” him down which caused him to act in the manner he did with other women. “She was weighing him down and would do so no longer.” (Kundera 28) At first Tomas felt as if he was light again, living the way he always wanted to, but as he tried to forget their relationship, the lightness he believed he attained still gave him the weight he longed to move away from.

2. How does Karenin’s relationship to Mefisto relate to Tomas and Tereza’s?

When Karenin first met Mefisto, he was questionable about the pig, “But he soon made friends with him, even to the point of preferring him to the village dogs.” (284) Similar to Karenin’s feelings for Mefisto, Tomas acted about Tereza. Although he could not leave Tereza because of their marriage and living arrangements, he used other tactics of meeting other women and eventually realized that he did truly love her and her to him. As much as Tomas tried to make himself believe he needed other women to be happy, the type that he felt he should be with, he eventually realized it may not always be the one you want to be with, but the one you are meant to be with. Love is not always created over night, but it can be learned and tested, the way he would always leave her made Tomas believe she would leave him, which she did eventually, but she knew they were meant to be together and it clearly was going to take him longer than it took her to realize.
 
Works Cited
Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. New York: Harper Perennial, 1999.

Antonette Boynes
HON ENG 226
Dr. Hobbs
04-03-2010
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Entry Ticket #6

Q1) On page 8 of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the statement is made that “If we only have one life to live, we might as well not live at all.” At the ending of the previous paragraph, it is said that our life is an outline with no picture, implying that there is no significance. Is this true? What other point of view can be drawn these statements?
A1) No, this is not true. I have always heard the saying “Only one life to live, so live it up,” so reading that having one life means that it is not significant, seems very odd. When there is only one of something it shows uniqueness, exclusiveness, and distinctiveness, and rarity. Having more than one of something shows commonness and unimportance. I like to think of life as a limited edition because there is only one so make it as valuable as possible. If we were able to practice and have a sketch of our lives, in some instances it would be better because then we could make better decisions, but on the contrary, the fact that we only have one means that we should be more cautious and make wise decisions from the start and use every experience as a learning tool to build a better life.

Patricia Pothier
Survey of World Lit
Dr. Hobbs
April 12, 2010

1. Does Milan Kundera provide a definitive answer to the philosophical lightness versus weight discussion?
a. In The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera examines the role in which lightness and weight as a dichotomy plays in the lives of his characters. Kundera paints a paradox that is suggested to be unanswerable. Kundera opens the novel with a brief description of the teachings of Nietzsche. Discussing the idea of eternal return ad infinitum, he calls it a heavy burden. He states “But is heaviness truly deplorable and lightness splendid?” (Kundera 5). It is my opinion that Kundera does not specify whether it is best to live in a world of lightness or weight not because he believes the question is unanswerable, but because it is a question that is subject to the separate needs of individuals. That is, that there is not a sufficient answer that applies to everyone. I do believe Kundera disagrees with Nietzsche. In his novel he uses his characters to allow readers to make their own decision on the issue. By showing the burdens, desires, and fears of four much different characters, Kundera makes it easier for the reader to decide whether lightness or weight is better.
2. Why is it that Tomas insists on living his light-hearted bachelor life?
a. After meeting Teresa in a café, Tomas imagines that he could possibly be in love with her when she falls ill. Unfortunately in the past Tomas was married before and it ended terribly. He had a son with his ex-wife but when they divorced he lost custody of his son. It can be suggested that this incident has scarred Tomas to the point where he refuses to allow love to enter his life again. It became a priority for Tomas to keep his women at a certain distance so when Teresa shows up with a suitcase, he begins to worry. Teresa does love Tomas and I believe that a small part of him cares for her but he could never reciprocate her feelings.

Dana Jennings
Dr. Hobbs
ENG-226
13-4-10

Entry Ticket: Kundera

Tomas is clearly an anti-hero in true postmodernist fashion; do you believe there are any attributes of his that may redeem him?

A. No. Through the first half of the book, Tomas has done nothing that would warrant our sympathy. It is possible that he could have an epiphany and become a good man, but I do not foresee that.

Should we feel empathy for a character, i.e. Tereza or Sabina, that finds herself in a “relationship” with Tomas?

A. The women in this novel have shown little or no imagination on changing their circumstances. Tereza is nearly mute, even in marriage to Tomas, and Sabina rebels, but only in petty ways, such as stealing his sock and forcing him to walk home with a woman’s stocking on. Their lack of confrontation enables Tomas’ horrid behavior.

Muriel Clemens
Dr. B. Lee Hobbs
ENG 226 Survey of English Literature II (Honors)
Reading Response 7

“A Short Dictionary of Misunderstood Words”
“The Old Church in Amsterdam”
The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Kundera uses “A Short Dictionary of Misunderstood Words” to show the gulf between Franz and Sabina. Each one sees the world differently: one is light and one is dark. Example: in “The Old Church in Amsterdam,” Franz sees the old Gothic cathedral as “the Grand March of History” (117). The church was once a place of worship where large numbers of people would gather. But time has moved on and the grand church has been striped of everything that made it holy. Franz sees only beauty in what he deems as a cleansing and uses this as a metaphor for his life. The example Franz uses is “Hercules’ broom,” because everything has been swept away. (118). Franz saw Light.
Sabina, whose life had been more difficult than Franz’s, saw the empty church in a totally different light. She saw this empty church as ugly. She had once gone to a village church to escape the student brigade and what she found was a different kind of beauty. To her, this little church was beautiful because it was not the ugly construction site where she spent her days. “The mass was beautiful because it appeared to her in a sudden, mysterious revelation as a world betrayed” (119). This discovery had a profound affect on her. “From that time on she had known that beauty is a world betrayed. The only way we can encounter it is if its persecutors have overlooked it somewhere. Beauty hides behind the scenes of the May Day parade” (119). What Sabina finds is Darkness.
Kundera uses his list of “Misunderstood Words” as a way of showing how each character sees life and how they differ. You cannot find “Misunderstood Words” in the dictionary, and you certainly could not find “The Old Church in Amsterdam.” Kundera wants us to see the Light and the Dark and his dictionary is the most logical way to do this. Not that logic plays a part in this story.
Reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being was a learning experience. The book could have been written any number of ways, but Kundera was writing from a Postmodern perspective, which as it turns out, gave the reader a wonderful way to look at life. We saw how each person saw their lives and how that vision affected their lives. What a wonderful way to write.

Works Cited
Kundera, Milan, and Michael Henry Heim. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. New York: Harper Perennial, 2008. Print.

Muriel Clemens
Dr. B. Lee Hobbs
ENG 226 Survey of English Literature II (Honors)
April 13, 2010
Entry Ticket #6

Entry Ticket 6
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
By
Milan Kundera

Question:
Who was Karenin and what did he symbolize?

Answer:
Karenin was Tereza and Tomas’s dog. He is the basis for a philosophical question; what is “True human goodness?” “True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Mankind’s true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it” (313).

Works Cited
Kundera, Milan, and Michael Henry Heim. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. New York: Harper Perennial, 2008. Print

Diana Parizon
English 226 - Honors
Dr. Hobbs
15 January 2010
Entry-Ticket # 6 Lightness of Being

Question: Thomas and Tereza are opposites. What experiences did they undergo before they met and how different are they after they depart?

Answer: Tomas lives a happy single life without any responsibilities. He developed his own philosophy about relationships, “Either you see a woman three times in quick succession and then never again, or you maintain relations over the years but make sure that the rendezvous are at least three weeks apart” (Kundera 12). The reason for this theory about the treatment of woman is because; even though, he desired them, he feared women. He learned to love freedom after his failed marriage lasted only two years; however, during this time their son was born, who after the divorce was kept by the mother while Tomas needed to pay support. He also was allowed to visit his son but every time he planned to go, his ex-wife found always an excuse to cancel the meeting. It went so far that Tomas could only see his son when he brought expensive gifts for his ex-wife. Of course, after time Tomas got tired of fulfilling her demands and quit visiting his son and paying child support. It is not mentioned what caused the marriage to fail; however, we can assume she was too ‘heavy’ for him to carry. When they married and got a child, the weight on Tomas’s shoulder was pushing him down until finally he was tired and wanted to be free. Since then, he feared to be drawn again in this “cage” and lives a life of lightness. He even found his likeness in Sabina who clearly does not like weight on her shoulder. Tereza, on the other hand, is more the opposite from Tomas. She grew up surrounded with people who valued lightness in life. She learned from childhood how without weight life has no meaning. Because of her experience at home, she wanted to live a life with values unlike her mother who was not ashamed to expose her body, or her stepfather who clearly had no shame of using the toilet while she bathed. Tereza’s mother put guilt in her mind for having her (almost like Tomas’s wife, who put weight on his shoulder).

Work Cited
Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Trans. Michael H. Heim. New York:
Harperperennial Modern Classics, 1984.

Diana Parizon
Dr. Hobbs
English 226 – Honors
15. April 2010
Fidelity and Betrayal

Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being not only differentiates lightness and weight but also the concept of fidelity and betrayal. Those terms are very important to explore for understanding the main characters. While Tereza and Franz value fidelity, Tomas and Sabina definitely feel more comfortable with betrayal to a certain degree. As I learned from the beginning of the story, Tomas lives a life of freedom, but he is not really betraying anyone because his lovers knew there were no strings attached to their relationship. However, when he meets Tereza (who values fidelity) Tomas gets a feeling of betrayal every time he meets up with Sabina. It got obvious for Sabina because he started checking the time during their intercourse.
On the other hand, Sabina has a different experience with betrayal. Her first betrayal was against her father. Her father did not allow her to love a boy that she fell in love with. He only loved art and influenced his daughter, but Sabina never felt freedom around her father. So, when she got the chance she betrayed him by going to Prague, as Kundera defines, “Betrayal means breaking ranks and going off into the unknown” (Kundera 91). Kundera defines the words by using the characters as an example of how the term dominates their lives. However, my understanding of betrayal is that one knows the consequences of it if one betrays someone. If someone betrays his partner, they know the relationship will never be the same. But Kundera is right that if changes happen a new chapter begins for the person and the person will undergo new experiences. Unfortunately, this betrayal did not appease her in any way because even in Prague she had no freedom because of Communism. Kundera even stated that Communism was simply a replacement of her father. Sabina first embraced betrayal as the key to freedom, but instead it drew her to more betrayal. Sabina got married to a second-rate actor, which was considered of breaking the ranks. But again, she later betrayed her husband by leaving him. She betrayed her betrayal over and over again, which takes her further away from her original betrayal. So what is the point of betrayal if there is no satisfaction to be gained? Only more deceit from the betrayal is being created. Fidelity carries weight for Sabina and Tomas. Fidelity actually reminded Sabina of her father who was loyal to his paintings. She never really liked fidelity for these reason but what she does not realize that betrayal is her fidelity – she shows loyalty to it since her first betrayal.

Work Cited
Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Trans. Michael H. Heim. New York:
Harperperennial Modern Classics, 1984.

Erin Van Eepoel Van Eepoel 1
Dr. Hobbs
April-13-2010

Q) Why would Tereza leave her entire life for a man she did not know?
A) Tereza came to Tomas on a whim. Not well thought through but she left her whole life just because of a chance series of events that she called fate. This shows that she is ruled heavily by her emotions and not her intelligence. Tereza’s choice made sense to her because she could rationalize it just enough to make it possible to leave her mother and stepfather with no warning. She was not an intelligent college graduate, Tereza was just a well read young woman guided by the fantasy of the very books that she adored. Instead of the rational calculated decisions of a college graduate she allowed her rationale to be based on what she chose to learn through her favorite books.

Q) Why did Sebina never want to settle down with one man?
A) Sebina spent her life trying to live outside the accepted boundaries for a woman. Ever since she was young she felt the need to rebel against her father who would not let her experience her first love at fourteen. This is just one example of how Sebina felt her father repressed her with his ideals that were so different from her own. For Sebina settling down with one man was just trapping herself even more. She felt so trapped by her father that she wanted to make sure she had nobody controlling her, which might have also played into her choice to be an artist, with no clear boss or guidelines.
Erin Van Eepoel Van Eepoel 2
Dr. Hobbs
April-13-2010

Q) Why would Tereza leave her entire life for a man she did not know?

Q) Why did Sebina never want to settle down with one man?

Branka Trivanovic


ENG 226 [HONORS]


Due April 14, 2010


Entry Ticket #6


Q. 1) How did Tereza’s relationship with her mother influence her adult life?


A. 1) As evident by her disturbing, reoccurring dream, Tereza’s relationship with her mother shaped her to be a somewhat screwed up individual. She looks at herself in the mirror, not out of vanity but because she is almost desperately trying to figure out who she really is. She sees her mother’s features in the mirror and is distraught by it because she does not consider herself to be anything like her mother. In fact, as a younger woman she wanted nothing more than to run away from her mom. When she does finally escape from her mother’s “prison”, she finds herself in a prison yet again, but this time with Tomas. In her nightmare, she is walking naked around a pool, doing knee-bends for Tomas along with other women. They are all identical in a way and then reminds her of the times when he mother would walk around naked in their home, exposing herself to the neighbors by not covering the windows. Tereza fights in her dream to not be like all the other women—to not end up dead and in a hearse. The other dead women tell her that they are all the same and that they are all going to the same place. This is comparable to Tereza’s mother telling her that she need not be ashamed of a naked body. On page 45, Tereza is chastised by her mother because Tereza locked the door when she was in the bath. She did not want her stepfather going to the bathroom at the same time that she was in there. Her mother got angry at her asking her, “Who do you think you are, anyway? Do you think he’s going to bit off a piece of your beauty?” These events lead to her not having a healthy relationship with her body. When she takes naked pictures of Sabina, she finds herself hesitant of stripping off her clothes when Sabina tells her too.


Q. 2) Despite knowing about his infidelities, Tereza stuck by Tomas until the day that they died. How do you feel about this? Had you been in her position, what would you have done?


A. 2) I find that Tereza was both brave and foolish for choosing to stay with him. In Part Two of the book when she left Switzerland to go back to Prague, my initial thought was, ”Yes!” but realistically I figured that she would go back to him. Although it was Tomas who went back to Tereza, she nonetheless accepted him back into her life. I feel that it is a common mistake that women who are being cheated on make. The man shows a little remorse for their actions and the woman’s faith in them is renewed, only to be broken yet again. I’ve never been married or cheated on (that I know of), but if I was in a relationship with someone like Tomas, it would not last long. I think there is a fine line between love and a sense of duty I guess you could say. She was walking more along the line of the duty. She was so focused on “fortuity” that she was blinded to what was really happening. Maybe one day I will eat my words and I will marry a womanizer but until then I really can’t relate to Tereza. I don’t feel sorry for her because she made a choice to stay with him. She could have easily just left him behind but I think that the ideas that she carried in her mind, such as the vertigo, were the forces that drove her to stick it out with him.

Antonette Boynes
HON ENG 226
Dr. Hobbs
04-03-2010
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Entry Ticket #6

Q1) On page 8 of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the statement is made that “If we only have one life to live, we might as well not live at all.” At the ending of the previous paragraph, it is said that our life is an outline with no picture, implying that there is no significance. Is this true? What other point of view can be drawn these statements?
A1) No, this is not true. I have always heard the saying “Only one life to live, so live it up,” so reading that having one life means that it is not significant, seems very odd. When there is only one of something it shows uniqueness, exclusiveness, and distinctiveness, and rarity. Having more than one of something shows commonness and unimportance. I like to think of life as a limited edition because there is only one so make it as valuable as possible. If we were able to practice and have a sketch of our lives, in some instances it would be better because then we could make better decisions, but on the contrary, the fact that we only have one means that we should be more cautious and make wise decisions from the start and use every experience as a learning tool to build a better life.

Mary Strand
ENG226
Dr. Hobbs
April 19, 2010

“Sabina’s Country”

Kundera considers Sabina’s Country “misunderstood” words in his text. The country that Sabina is from is not just background information that may or may not help the reader picture her character, but it is information about her that will shape her into a mysterious and intriguing figure. Kundera wants the reader to respect and admire Sabina for the weight she carries from her time spent in her homeland. But he also wants the reader to realize why it is that Sabina longs for the lightness of life that she sees in Franz’s life.

Sabina envied Franz for the life he had, where he could dedicate himself to his writing and not worry about things interrupting his creative process. In the beginning of her artistic journey, she was interrupted by the jurisdiction of her superiors in her country, and she could not express the themes in her paintings, that she desired. The weight she carries because of the persecution and imprisonment, and other “ugly” words, is not something that Sabina values. She tells Franz, “Conflict, drama, and tragedy don’t mean a thing; there was nothing inherently valuable in them, nothing deserving respect or admiration” (102-103). Franz sees these “ugly” words as events that should evoke emotions and revelations, as Sabina had done for him.

Sabina’s country is a place that she longed to be freed from, and place that Franz longed to experience. Franz says to Sabina, “That’s why one banned book in your former country means infinitely more than the billions of words spewed out by our universities” (103). The terrible things that Sabina experienced in her country are things that Franz cannot fathom. He has been fortunate to not have regulations put on his work and he had the “peace and quiet to devote himself to it” (103). This is why Sabina was so beautiful to him; she was unique and very different from him.

In this section of Kundera’s novel, I believe a very clear picture of both Sabina and Franz is created for the reader. The way in which he went about describing Sabina and Franz’s feelings towards “Sabina’s Country”, and the conflicts she experienced there, shows Sabina as being somewhat apathetic towards her past. But, her apathy could give the reader the impression that it honestly does not matter to her, when in fact at some point her past had to have made a significant impact on her. This supports the way in which she currently lives out her artistic and weightless lifestyle. Franz needs more to his life; he wants a more daring and risk filled life. This he finds in Sabina, and looks to her former life and country to find the weight that he wishes he knew.

Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. New York: Harper & Row 1984.

Tommy Tagliavia 1
Dr. Hobbs
English Honors Eng 226
20 April 2010
Recurrence in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera
In Kunderas novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera uses Nietzsche’s concept of eternal return and recurrence as a concept of motif. Kundera uses the concept as the whole point of the novel, he has it to where the ladies keep going back to Tomas when he cheats on Tereza and yet she still stays with him. Nietzsche’s concept is that everything that we have done recurs itself infinite times.
One way Kundera shows how this concept is used is by the way Tereza is with Tomas. Tereza knows about the affairs Tomas has, especially with Sabina, yet she still stays with him. The recurrence in this, besides all the affairs, is that Tomas and Tereza move to Switzerland to start over on their relationship. However, shortly after the move Sabina moves there as well and the affairs between her and Tomas recur. Once Tereza found out about this she moved back to Prague which of course Tomas followed. To me it seems like wherever they move and whatever Tomas does, she will always take him back. Throughout the relationship difficulties they have, it just seems like whatever happens will continue to happen over and over. Nietzsche says that whatever happens in life recurs to the infinitum and that is what seems to be happening with Tomas and Tereza. Even at the end of the novel when Tereza brings that rabbit that is Tomas back home to Prague as if he was still with her, it is like a recurrence of them being together.

2
Recurrence also occurs in this novel throughout couples. The way it brought out is that cheating on your spouse then feeling terrible for it and trying to change your ways, happens frequently. Franz had sexual affairs with a lady called Sabina for nine months, then the whole Tomas and Tereza situation it is just a repeating occurrence throughout the book. Sexual affairs throughout the book show recurrence in many ways. The first way of recurrence is how the ladies are always getting the affair to begin with. Tereza did however cheat on Tomas with an engineer but she did that to get back and over Tomas. After the recurrence the man would always fess up and tell the woman about it. Throughout all of these situations the man always was the one leading the affair and then going back to the ladies to be forgiven.

Work Cited
Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1984.

Living in Truth
Living in truth means different things to different people. For most people it simply means being honest with yourself and other people, but sometimes it goes deeper.
To Sabina it meant keeping her life private. For Sabina she could only be truly honest when nobody was watching and judging her life. She felt as though when people know they are being watched they fake how they truly act and live in a lie. This is why she never kept a normal relationship. All her lovers were affairs and she hid them well. People tend to worry about what others think more than they should and that’s causes them to put on a front and lie to themselves and others.
Franz on the other hand believed that dividing yourself into public and private lives was the source of all lies. Franz believed to live in truth meant being the same in public and private “living in a glass house” so everyone could see in. This is why he eventually broke down and told his wife about his affair with Sabina. When Franz told her he got an unusual response, she simply said “Yes, I think it’s time I knew about it.” As he flew off to Rome with his mistress Franz felt as though he was finally living in truth.
These two opposite views kept Sabina and Franz at odds, especially after she found out his wife knew. Sabina felt like he had let his wife inside Sabina’s private life where she did not belong. Sabina was frustrated with the fact that she had now become a rival for a woman who she did not even see as a threat. Eventually Franz’s admittance leads to the separation of Franz and his wife Marie-Claude. Sabina quickly takes her place in Franz’s life. Sebina has never been

the type of woman to settle down with one man permanently. After just a short while she realizes she is not happy being settled in with Franz. The longer she stayed with him the more she wanted to destroy him. He was too good of a man for her to just keep hurting him. One day Sabina decided that it was not fair to him at all. She needed to leave and let him go back with his wife.
Living in truth meant something different to each person but in the end the differences in opinion destroyed the relationship. The view of truth is very important in any relationship and must match up in order for the relationship to be a success.

Branka Trivanovic


ENG 226 [HONORS]


Dr. B. Lee Hobbs


Due April 20, 2010




Reading Response




In Milan Kundera’s Unbearable Lightness of Being, he defines some common place words in a way that differ from the “normal” definition. Franz’s opinion of the “misunderstood” words are more like the dictionary definitions while Sabina has a more interesting take on them.

When talking about Bohemian cemeteries, Sabina’s character compares them to gardens. To her a cemetery is not a “dump of stones and bones” like it is to Franz. She sees it as a children’s ball because, “the dead are as innocent as children” in her opinion. Whenever she feels down she gets in her car and drives to a cemetery. There she feels like no matter what is happening in the world, “peace always reigns in the cemetery” (104) which I find to be an ironic statement. Peace in a cemetery comes from the silence… the silence is initiated by the fact that the people who reside there are dead. They have no way of speaking, thus, there can be nothing other than peace.

Although he could have chosen any words to “clarify” this part of his novel, I think that Kundera chose the words such as “cemetery” to show just how different two people can be. The only thing that Sabina and Franz shared was a bed. They carried separate ideologies about most of life. They couldn’t even agree on something as universal as a cemetery. Sabina indulged in visiting while Franz saw nothing special in them. He did not seem like the type to visit just for the fun of it. I think that the only time he planned on spending time in one is when he is dead and gone like all of the other occupants there.

Overall I enjoyed the book. I think that it drew a lot of important life questions to light—no pun intended. I was both annoyed and fond of Tereza’s willingness to stick by Tomas all the while he was being promiscuous and sleeping around with other women behind her back. I figured that other than her fear of not having anyone if Tomas left her, I think that maybe deep down Tereza knew that eventually he’d come back to her and be only hers. They lived up to the traditional marriage vows of “till death do you part”…

Works Cited


Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. New York: HarperPerennial, 1991.

Patricia Pothier
ENG 226
Survey of World Lit.
Dr. Hobbs

The Sun Also Rises
---------
Light and Darkness appears on page 94 of the book and is referenced to the lives of Sabina and Franz. Their lives intertwine yet the two characters define these terms very differently. Throughout the novel Kundera discusses his own interpretation of the terms light and dark. It is in this section that he lays out a clearer definition based in his own interpretation. He does this by using two of the books main characters.
Kundera opens the section with, “Living for Sabina meant seeing. Seeing is limited by two borders: strong light, which blinds, and total darkness.” Sabina’s life symbolizes lightness of being. She uses these terms, light and dark, figuratively. The two words become like borders to her which present limitations. Deciding to rebel against the limitations these terms represent she develops a distaste for “extremism”. An extremist is understood to be one who advocates or resorts to measures beyond the norm. It is a term used frequently in regards to politics. Kundera writes, “A passion for extremism, in art and in politics, is a veiled longing for death.” This provides the reader with a better idea of Sabina’s lightness of being. At the end of the section he defines Sabina’s interpretation of darkness. He writes, “But for her, darkness did not mean infinity; for her, it meant a disagreement with what she saw, the negation of what was seen, the refusal to see.” Since Sabina dislikes extremes she chooses to shy away from blinding light and total darkness.
Franz however, applies the two terms literally. Light to him is not a representation as it is to Sabina. Kundera writes, “[light] evoked the source of light itself: the sun, a light bulb, a spotlight.” Franz is a weighty character. In the novel he is bothered by lightness which creates a need for importance in practically every event he comes across. In terms of darkness, Kundera depicts a strong desire that attracts Franz; even though he knows it to be laughable to make love in the dark, he still closes his eyes when he has sex with Sabina. Kundera writes, “The darkness was pure, perfect, thoughtless, visionless.” It eliminates borders and allows him to capture a sense of infinity. To Sabina, the closing of his eyes makes him lifeless almost dead to her. Since seeing is living she in turn closes her eyes as well.
Kundera used these terms to provide a better window into the lives of Sabina and Franz. By doing so he contrasts their characters and shows the complexities that come with the intimacy of their relationship.

Katie Ganning
Dr. B. L. Hobbs
ENG 226: Survey of World Literature II
20 April 2010
Beauty Is In the Eye of the Beholder
In every country, there is the pride and culture of the people that create diversity from other countries. As much as some may look down upon other cultures, they must also remember that possibly their lifestyle is not of a liking to others too. In Kundera’s The Lightness of Being, Sabina’s lovers Franz looks down upon New York’s beauty because of the structure on which it was built, unintentional.
As Franz and Sabina walk through New York, he draws the conclusion that each building is created out of human design and not well thought out. Similar to the way he felt of New York, it is possible that he meant the mannerism of the political stand-point. “Beauty in the European sense has always had a premeditated quality to it. We’ve always had an aesthetic intention and a long-range plan.” (Kundera 101) Since America was originally govern by the monarchy of England, the rebels of the country decided on gaining independence and overtime created a government solely on freedom of the people. As he sees the beauty of New York unpleasant, Sabina sees it as, “Beauty by mistake.” (101)
Similar to his metaphor about mountains, that every step you take is different than the last, he defines New York as similar. As a whole, Franz saw New York as unplanned with everything thrown together without putting much thought into it at all, but Sabina saw New York as one of her paintings. Sabina’s style of art was what one would call abstract, like New York; as a whole you see everything together and it may look a bit confusing, but if you see the details, like the way she saw the people passing by, it begins to create a form of appreciation to the art and the person who created the work.
 
Works Cited
Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. New York: Harper Perennial, 1999.

Dana Jennings
Dr. Hobbs
ENG-226
20-4-10

The Bearable Heaviness of Woman

Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a pessimistic and tragic story of a love triangle, or rather, love polygon. Therefore it follows that Kundera’s definition of the word “woman” is drastically different than the Oxford English Dictionary or mine. We have a few examples of women, namely Tereza, Sabina and Marie-Claude. The most sympathetic, in my opinion, is Sabina, even despite her being complicit in the infidelity of at least two men. This is because she is the lightest in the novel, the one that recognizes her indiscretions and is able to find her balancing place in her life.

The other two women are heavy, not physically, but metaphysically. They represent marriage and fidelity, and a chain to keep the men grounded. The men, Tomas and Franz are constantly chafing against their chains and in the end Marie-Claude is forced to metaphorically strangle Franz with his chains. I do not respect Tereza, which I cannot figure out if Kundera wants us to respect her or not. She is a rube, which is forgivable, but she is a willing participant and enabler of Tomas and his indiscretions.

Kundera uses a method of definition that is conversational and informal, discussing particular women rather than a broad statement of gender or the sex. He ends the definition of women with “It was then he had his first inkling of what it means to suffer” (91). This is a terrible view of women to be left with, and it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

He chose certain words as his “misunderstood” words because they best represented to him the lightness and heaviness of the world around him. He sees women as heavy objects, and therefore places value to them, but he changes the norm by placing questionable values to them. His most sympathetic female character is an accomplice to adultery many times over. This is his method of questioning our values and forcing us to rethink how we view the world and the object in it. I state it that way because I feel that Kundera does see women as objects, either to be conquered like a mountain or evaded like an invading horde.

Work Cited
Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Trans. Michael Henry. Heim. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. Print.

Antonette Boynes
HON ENG 226: Survey of World Literature II
Dr. Lee Hobbs
04-18-2010

Eternal…………..?

The concept of Eternal Return is basically a notion that history occurs again and again. Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, commences with a discussion on this topic. He denies any possibility of the return being valid because of the fate of humans, humans fall into total rejection of established laws and institutions, unless he/she believes in eternal return of their actions, consequently, giving their actions weight.
Tomas is a very worthless man, whose sexual encounters are nothing more than the very adjective that describes him. They are all meaningless to him, until fate throws him Tereza. Tomas’s continuous unfaithfulness causes her much pain, nevertheless she endures all his betrayals and is more attracted to him, and vice versa. On page 33, he uses the expression Es Muss Sein, to express their relationship; it must be!
Kundera uses the theme of eternal return as a writing motif . When Tomas uses the Es Muss Sein expression to describe his relationship with Tereza, he finds meaning, something associated with weight. Although it may seem as thought it was his choice, clearly in the book, Tomas acquired feelings for Tereza which he could not control making it destiny, not his choice of destiny. Many times situations happen that have to be put up with and cannot be escaped.
At the ending of the novel, Kundera says, "And therein lies the whole of man's plight. Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line. That is why man cannot be happy: happiness is the longing for repetition." At this point Kundera acknowledges Nietzsche's point of view on the eternal recurrence permitting meaningless survival, however he is teasing Nietzsche, knowing the survival is impossible because the eternal return does not and cannot happen! It is all a wish.