The Unbearable Lightness of Being Literary Elements

Postmodern novel

Mainly in Prague in the late 1960s and early 1970s

The author uses the method of framing: there is a narrator (first-person narration) and the story which he tells, where the third-person narration is used.

The story is “filled” with emotions: the author describes each character’s inner world, each emotion, each point of view on this or that situation. Thus the story, though it is full of events, has more emotional mood than declarative, neutral.

The protagonists of the story are all its characters and their feelings and emotions become antagonistic here.

The major conflict takes place between all characters of the story and their essences: their feelings, thoughts etc.

Actually there is no some clear point in the story which could be called the culmination. But this point may be when Franz dares to confess in treason to his wife. Than his life changes absolutely, and Sabina’s as well.

There is a great “portion” of implication in the story. The events which take place in the text are just a kind of example for those philosophic views which the author has: he “talks” about the heaviness/lightness of human being, about love, about freedom, betrayal and many other concepts, which may be interpreted in every possible way, and no one knows which way is correct, because “living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come.”

N/A

The author often alludes to different books (Bible – story about Moses), philosophers (Nietzsche, Parmenides), even musicians (Beethoven).

View the imagery section

The author uses this method in the phrase “If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all.” Thus, alluding to another famous paradoxical phrase “Einmal ist keinmal” [one time means nothing], he shows the absurdity of human being.

The author often uses this method, depicting in parallel: dreams and reality, soul and body, social environment, war and daily life of the characters, etc.

N/A

Though the text of the story is full of different artistic methods, the author doesn’t use personification very often. Though there are some examples of it, such as love which “declares itself”, Sabina’s studio which “greeted” Tomas etc.