Essay - How the Four Mayor Characters Live and Think? Outline Introduction:...

How the four mayor characters live and think?

OUTLINE

Introduction:

Thesis: ***** characters are exponents of the author illustrating both personal experience - living in Soviet Czechoslovakia - and the philosophical trend called "existentialism" which holds that the human existence itself is weak and meaningless, ***** that man can find meaning only through his own actions historical perspective: the action takes place mainly in Prague, but also ***** America and Switzerland; the period of time when ***** events take place is between the middle of the 1960s and the mid*****1980s, during the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia existentialist *****: ***** lightness is the lack of meaning ***** life which in turn, allows complete freedom for the characters technique used in characterization: a situation is described, then the re***** or feelings of the character(s), followed by a change made to the initial ***** ***** the intervention of the narrator who offers a reflection of ***** re*****ction/feelings of the character(s) role of narrator: the ***** is a fiction*****lized version of the author; omniscient perspective; ***** narrator is an important character in the novel; h***** interventions are very valuable to understanding the inner life of ***** four major characters

Main body:

character: Tomas is an intellectual ***** *****s in Prague with h***** wife and is forced to abandon *****is profession due to political persecution from the Communists; he is unfaithful and very individualistic; ***** of being; somewhat dynamic, ***** does not ***** fundamentally character: Tereza is Tomas's wife and his exact opposite in terms of ********** she is na ve and ideal*****tic; faithful and sensitive; heaviness of being; changes significantly throughout ***** novel character: Sabina is Tomas's lover, a student who ***** very self-reliant and independent; rebellious against the surrounding world; enters an affair with a university professor but then le*****ves him and moves to America; the extreme ***** of the lightness ***** being *****: Franz is a married philosophy professor who meets and falls in love with Sabina; he decides to divorce ***** ***** ***** be ***** Sabina but she then leaves him; he decides to become a political activist and goes to Vietnam where he is killed; meaningless death; ***** heaviness of ***** looks for the meaning ***** life; upholds love and political implication; strong emotions; ***** not change at all throughout the novel

Conclusion:

short summary of the ending of the novel: three of ***** characters die; the fourth ***** in exile ***** never returns to her homeland - Sabina - just like the author the ***** of the characters: ***** four characters make up the complex personal experience of the ***** who chose exile over Communism; *****y represent the result of a mixture of Communist repression and personal failure and hopelessness.

When asked about his ***** in The Unbearable Lightness ***** Being, ***** how they emerged, Milan Kundera said referring to the character of Tomas, "And once more I see him the way he appeared to me at t***** very beginning of the novel. This is the image from *****