Cultural Identity In Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness Of Being

Lastly, within both works, the struggle for a sense of cultural identity is also the struggle for oneself. In The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera utilizes the political setting of his work to evaluate the influence of cultural identity on his characters. When Tereza and Tomas return to a Czech spa after the Russian invasion, Tereza notes that its appearance is just as it was six years ago; however, in a show of passive resistance, Czech people remove street signs to disorient their invaders. Tereza retrospects, “Hindsight now made the anonymity seem quite dangerous to the country”(166). Just as the buildings and roads in this Czech town, including the spa, are currently adorned with Russian names since they cannot return to their former …show more content…
Early in the Spring of 1968, Tomas publishes a political piece which earns him both credit as a Czech intellectual and also repercussions. Tomas refuses to retract the statement not because he is a dissident or because the piece’s content is meaningful to him but rather since “no one doubted he would comply. That was the thing that struck him: although he had never given people cause to doubt his integrity, they were ready to bet on his dishonesty rather than on his virtue”(181). Even though practicing medicine is Tomas’ desire and elevates his life above the banal to the beautiful, he is willing to forfeit his career in the name of resistance. However, this comes at a cost for Tomas and for Tereza, because Tomas’ “grand holiday” as a window washer has deprived his life of meaning and so he turns once more to a life of womanizing which furthers the conflict between him and …show more content…
But such a classification seems to negate the presence of philosophical themes within the novels which continue to make the study of such works relevant. Despite the specificity of the crisis faced by two distinct casts of characters, the commonalities are equally striking. Both protagonists grapple with life’s ultimate question--how to live meaningfully--not only in a conceptual sense but in a practical one which prompts even more reflection. As a result, conflict emerges in both works as characters struggle to control their own identities, the identities of those around them, and their cultural identity. For the Count, acceptance of his own identity and self-realization occurs within hours of his confinement and his love of both Sophia and his Russian heritage is unconditional. While for Tomas and Tereza these matters are not resolved until hours before their deaths. Thus, in The Unbearable Lightness of Being tension is built from attempting to change one's identity, while in A Gentleman in Moscow it is from resistance to