Bridging Between Two Novels: Ideas

I have found that there are two sides in the novels We and The Unbearable Lightness of Being. These sides are;

SIDE ONE...

Where sex is separate from everything. Essentially the soul does not exist and the body is used as the main instrument. With this view comes no regrets, no baggage - freedom, no eternal return and lightness. What I want to explore is the positive and negatives of this way of being. As for characters, this side is prominent in Tomas (though Tomas loves Tereza, he does not feel he has to be loyal to her sexually), Sabina and also in D-503 at the beginning of We.

Sabina portrays this (pg 265) where she is talking about her death. "She wants to die under the sign of lightness" by being cremated. It is a way of showing the superficiality that has taken a hold over her as being buried in the ground is a sign of heaviness and having a gravestone is a sign of eternal return but by being cremated the ashes remain on the surface and forever light.

Also the motion and reason behind her art has changed. Noted at the beginning of the book her art was a way of expressing her true emotions..."of course, I couldn't show them to anybody...On the surface, there was always an impeccably realistic world, but underneath...lurked something different, something mysterious or abstract....On the surface, an intelligible lie; underneath, the unitelligible truth." (pg 60) but by the end of the book, they become "kitsch" as it has become a commercial enterprise for her...."She had no trouble selling her paintings". This is an example of how lacking the belief of a soul effects your outlook as a person.

Effects of separating Soul and Body;

~ Atomization -> the splitting up of an individual by complete disintegration.

~ Superficiality

With D-503 at the beginning of We, he believes that individual freedom is "heavy" and a remains of the distant past, and that numbers, the inhabitants of the one State, live and work best in collective state of gratification rather than happiness (http://www.enotes.com/we-yevgeny-zamyatin-salem/we). The idea of "collectivism" is an example of lacking a soul that creates an identity for yourself. The bodies on Onestate are used as machines, calculators of the Benefactor and all his means. Also the concept that freedom is heaviness and therefore something to avoid relates back to Tomas and Sabina's way of life. The effects of this sort of heaviness however, is no individual thought or freedom whereas with Tomas and Sabina, it is the freedom that they impose of themselves that help to keep them lighter characters.

Quotes that help me show this concept:

"To ensure that erotic friendship never grew into the aggression of love, he would meet each of his long-term mistresses only at intervals" pg 11

"The unwritten contract of erotic friendship stipulated that Tomas should exclude all love from his life." pg 12

SIDE TWO...

Where love and sex are intertwined. The soul is definite part of the body and the two work together. However eternal return accompanies this. The characters that show this is Tereza and D-503 towards the end of the novel.

"We don't know ourselves until we are in a relationship with someone" and "To understand someone do you need to let your life intertwine with theirs?" --- These are two questions that I am also going to be exploring in the background. The relationship between Franz and Sabina and the symbol of the bowler hat, and the forbidden relationship with D-503 and I-330 also will help me to gain knowledge on this question.

Quotations;

~ "..it was the amazement of seeing her own 'I'. She forgot she was looking at the instrument panel of her body mechanisms; she thought she saw her soul shining through the features of her face."

It is passion for I-330 that leads D-503 to gain "weight" as he rebels more against what the Onestate is pushing for. Pronouns are crucial for this as "we" changes to "I". "We" for D-503 is symbolic of every body being used as one instrument and soul does not exsist whereas "I" is symbolic of self-actualisation, which the act of writing encourages. The reference "my cheeks are burning" (pg2) depicts him awakening to his emotions.

POSSIBLE ESSAY QUESTIONS

1) Comparative Essay to show the effects of separating the soul and body in contrast with the interweaving of both elements in the novels We and The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

2) Soul and Body: The analysis of two separate ways of being.