Contrasting depictions of Privacy in We and the UBLOB

The notion of privacy in the UBLOB is depicted as a very desirable trait. However the lack of privacy that has infested itself within the life of Tereza has consequently rid her of her individuality. We area reminded throughout the novel that Tereza feels her life is set within a concentration camp. The concentration camp hold connotations of 'brutality and torture' but Kundera is sure to remind us that these these characteristics are 'secondary' features of the purpose within the camp. The removal of ones sense of individuality and uniqueness is the unspoken goal. Each human turns into an exact copy of the person next to them (metaphorically), transforming them internally and externally. This concept is what Tereza always fears throughout the novel. She has strong desires to escape this 'concentration camp' she has lived in her entire life. Her mother is shown to be largely responsible for this, reading out Tereza's personal diary to all her friends. Her step-father would come into the bathroom whilst she was in the bath, which prompted Tereza to lock the door to conceal the privacy of herself. When her mother found out she was furious, questioning her whether she believes 'he's going to bite off a piece of your beauty' The concept follows her and reminds her every day. Among the crowded clutter of bodies inside the tram her personal space is invaded. There is no sense of importance of the body within this environment. Tereza is scared in these kind of situtations because she feels like she loses the control of her own body. The clutter of bodies does not value the body as an individual, it rather acts as a whole, and removes the ability for one to define the difference between your own body and the people around you.

We on the other hand, embraces the idea of an environment where one can see the action of every other individual. The One State ultimately aims to have 24hr surveillance of every cipher. The use of glass of every building inhibits the ciphers to carry out tasks in the privacy of themselves unless during personal hour. At night the ciphers 'transparent cages' are 'brightly lit' only those rooms that have their permission for lowering blinds stand out amongst the bright lights. Ciphers brought up within this environment find comfort in this style of living, especially D-503. D-503 is in fact scared of the inability to see through 'opaque walls' and the 'fog', two unconquerable features that D-503 feels as though he cannot control because of their physical qualities. The Cube Plaza, a panoticon style building, constructed as sixty-six concentric circles serves as the major meeting place for all ciphers of the One State. The center acts only as a place of the One States powerful dictator, the Benefactor and the 'Bell Jar'. From here the Benefactor can see a three hundred and sixty degree view of all ciphers, destroying the existence of privacy and keeping the ciphers consistently on the edge of unspoken terror in his presence. The place of the annual re-election of the Benefactor undoubtedly takes place in the Cube Plaza, which discourages the ciphers from rebelling against his orders without being caught.

It is interesting that the removal of privacy acts as a desired control of the ciphers for the One State, but Tereza seeks the control of her soul and body in the presence of privacy. Hence privacy in the One State is not respected as it is shown by Tereza. Privacy enables Tereza to develop he soul and body individualistically, but the non-existence of privacy of the One State, other than personal hour, enables the development of uniformity and the demolition of character and individualism.

Research on the Relationship between 'We' and 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being'

Dreams are seen as a ‘physic sickness’ in We. In We dreams also act as haunting device. After firstly visiting the Ancient house, D503 is left in an uncomfortable position; he is puzzled by this world he has been ‘thrown’ into in the presence of I-330. Consequently he dreams of items in the Ancient House like the ‘Bronze Buddha’, ‘sap dripping down from the mirror’ and the ‘yellow dress . . . yellow as a lemon’, but in a very surrealistic way. The obscurity his dreams are significant in showing his distressed state of mind. This is similar to the distressed state of the mind of Tereza.

Dreams are also used symbolically in The Unbearable Lightness of Being as a way of communicating Tereza’s jealously of Tomas mistresses that she is unable to communicate to him consciously. Dreams are important in portraying the emotions of Tereza, because of her inability to convey these emotions directly to Tomas. The ‘weight’ that these thoughts held inside of her, worrying about the mistresses/Tomas’s love for her, is haunting her within her subconscious mind. The main difference between dreams in We and the UBLOB is that Tereza dream appear to be more objective, and D-503's more subjective. ( need to still write more on this topic)

The idea of serving for another’s good is also present in both texts. D-503 feels pride in serving the One State for its own good, as builder of the Integral. “I am D-503. I am the Builder of the Integral” he says in the opening record. The use of capitals in ‘Builder’ implies the D-503’s genuine pride of the job. D-503 over ruling commitment to the One State can be shown through his decision to undergo the ‘great operation’. However D-503 is lured out of his commitment out of his own control Tereza is lured out of her commitment by her own desire to become an individual.

Kundera intends to show the theme of serving through Tereza, from a young age she ‘works as a waitress, handing over all her earnings’ and ‘running the household’ as a willingly doing ‘anything to gain her mother’s love’. When you serve you place other people before yourself and because she has done this her entire life, she has always been the one below, the less important one. She ‘yearns for something higher’ in her life and ‘she was the brightest in her class’ yet she somewhat feels restricted by her physical appearance, standing ‘before the mirror so often’ and trying to ‘see herself through it’. Brought on by her mother in the way she paraded the body ‘stark naked around the house’ and criticised Tereza for locking the door to the bathroom to hide her body. Except the problem was that Tereza strived for something higher through her body, but the body was not something she could change.

The idea of nurturing is also present in both texts. In We we learn that that D-503 values his diary as though it is a baby inside of him- ‘like the pulse of a tiny unseeing mini-being . . . feeding for many months on my blood, and then, in anguish, it will be ripped from myself and placed on the foot of the State’. He also makes mention to how ‘the One State is not yet born, we are joyfully ripening’ which has connotations of growth like a child inside a woman’s stomach. Similarly in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Tomas appears to play the role of nurturing Tereza- ‘A single metaphor can give birth to love’-his ‘rescue’ of Tereza, taking her home and letting her stay and recover while sick is metaphorical to Moses being rescued from the river in the bulrush basket, as well as the story of ‘young Oedipus, Sophocles wouldn’t have written his most beautiful tragedy’.

The Depiction of the Soul appears to show linkages between the two texts. The soul is defined as the inner sense that drives your emotions, feelings, like a conscience. It is an inner psychological world that no one can see into, a way of determining what is right and wrong. The soul is developed through outside influences. The body is a vessel to your soul; it is the thing that sparks to the makeup of who you are. The soul is intangible, something that no one can handle, it is a word that gives a name to intangible internal thoughts and emotions. The soul triggers a set of ways of judging and knowing human existence. It is aligned to the philosophical world.

In the UBLOB Tereza reflects on the relationship between the soul and body, and their strong interrelationship. She struggles to detach the soul from the body in order to see through into herself. Instead she sees her body through her soul, and this in turn causes her distress. Each time she would "stare all the more doggedly at her image in an attempt to wish away" her mothers features. This reflects the strong desire of her soul to control and change the body, but every time she succeeds her soul "would rise to the surface of her body like a crew charging up the bowels of a ship" , in other words she would see her soul in the form of her own body. Perhaps this quote suggests that Tereza feels as though her soul is also indented with the features of her mother. This moment is also described as "a time of intoxication", because it seems her mothers features seep into soul as the soul and body are seen as one through the eyes of Tereza looking into the mirror.

On the other hand D503 one makes recognition of his soul upon being in the presence of I-330. He firstly begins to recognize his sensuality which develops his 'soul'. The soul is only associated with the ancient world, described as a 'strange ancient, long forgotten word' and because of this it is feared by D503, and he begins to loose his grounding to the One State. The fact that it is 'incurrable' makes this 'sickness' even more 'grave' to him. During his immersion into the dimensions of his soul, he is awakened to the new unknown world beyond the limitations of Mathematics. The difference between the depiction of the soul in these two texts is that Tereza sees the soul and body as one, but D-503 cannot associate the body with the soul. The One State preferably favours the body with machine like qualities, which includes the absence of the soul in order to achieve this.