Please read 175 - 209 and respond to the following prompts in complete sentences. Use quotes when stipulated.
1. Paraphrase Tomas's theory about Oedipus and communism.
2. What were the two possible reactions to his decision? Use quotes a support.
3. Agree or disagree: "How defenseless we are in the face of flattery!" (185)
4. Explain the following: "It is a tragicomic fact that our proper upbringing has become an ally of the secret police" (187).
5. Why did Tomas quit the hospital and become a "window washer"(192)?
Happy Reading!
1. Paraphrase Tomas's theory about Oedipus and communism.
2. What were the two possible reactions to his decision? Use quotes a support.
3. Agree or disagree: "How defenseless we are in the face of flattery!" (185)
4. Explain the following: "It is a tragicomic fact that our proper upbringing has become an ally of the secret police" (187).
5. Why did Tomas quit the hospital and become a "window washer"(192)?
Happy Reading!
1. Thomas says that the story of Oedipus and communism is very similar, because they are both innocent. In the story of Oedipus, he did not know that he was sleeping with his mother, and killed his father. In communism, communists who were supporting was accused as a murderer of the country. But the communists say that they were simply believing in it, and they didn’t know that they were entrapping their country.
ReplyDelete2. The first possible reaction to his decision was people being happy because he would make the others action seem normal. “The people with the first type of reaction would be happy because by inflating cowardice, he would make their actions seem commonplace and thereby give them back their lost honor” (Kundera 183). The second possible reaction was that people with opposing opinions from other’s were hoping that their opinion will start to stand out. “The people with the second type of reaction, who had come to consider their honor a special privilege never to be yielded, nurtured a secret love for the cowards” (Kundera 183).
3. I agree with this quote because by saying flattery, you get higher standard from that person, and you save yourself from being hated by that person. And in Tomas’ case, by showing the card of the Ministry, he is going to be saved even though he drives when he is drunk. So people do not want to lose expectations from that person, so they work it out by using flattery.
4. I think this quote is talking about how the secret police is now coming into your life, and you can’t make any proper decisions anymore. In Tomas’ case, he wants to tell the editor’s name, but he is afraid that the secret police will know about it. So the secret police is invading your life in a way.
5. Tomas became a ‘window washer’ because the police will not gain interest to a lower rank person. He wanted to escape from the situation right now, so he became a window washer which is considered as an routine chores.
6. In chapter 7, Tomas was wondering if there is any ‘Ess muss sein’ in his life. He finds out that his job as a doctor was one of them. This is because he felt blasphemy and ‘Ess muss sein’ when he was cutting open the patient’s body in a surgery. Then it questions why Tomas has left his job so easily because there is a less chance that the police will make a false statement on the signature. So there must be a deep meaning of letting go of his job.
Quote: “Tomas realized that both men opposite of hime were his own involuntary creations. He had been forced to produce the younger one by his first wife, and the features of the older one had taken shape when he was under interrogation by the police” (Kundera 211).
1. Tomas used a metaphor between Oedipus and Communism. The Anti-Communists were blaming the Communists in Czechoslovakia. The Communists said they were not guilty because they did not know what was going on. Tomas’ theory said that even though Oedipus didn’t know that he had committed a deadly sin, he still punished himself when he found out. Therefore the Communists should not say that they are totally innocent and take responsibility for what they caused.
ReplyDelete2. The two possible reactions were to make the people who consented to apologizing happy because it would show them that they are not the only ones who were cowards. The second reaction would make the people who opposed to apologize happy because it would make them stand out. “everyone was smiling at him, everyone wanted him to write the retraction; it would make everyone happy!” (Kundera 182-183).
3. I agree to this quote because whenever someone flatters me I feel very happy and it gets harder for me to dislike them even if I know I should.
4. I think this is what the quote means. It is proper manners to introduce yourself just to be friendly. In this case though, by telling your name to a stranger, you are putting yourself in danger because the person you tell it to might tell on the secret police.
5. The police said that if he apologized publicly and declared his love for communism, he would be able to get his former life back. However, Tomas refused to do that and resigned his clinic job because by doing so, the police no longer had control over him. I also think that he wanted to be freed from his duties as a doctor though.
Zen