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Part 2, Chapter 23
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Time, Happiness, and Eternal Return
Lightness, Weight, and Dichotomies
Sex, Love, and Duality of Body and Soul
Words and Language
Power, Politics, and Inequality
Summary
Analysis
When Tereza was in Zurich, she tried to sell some of her photographs of the Russian invasion to the Swiss press. The editor showed Tereza some photographs that she intended to publish of a nude beach somewhere in Europe, and said that she could tell just by looking at Tereza that she had never been on a nude beach. The editor said that naked bodies are “normal” and “beautiful,” and Tereza couldn’t help but think about her mother.
Tereza’s idea of “normal” and “beautiful” is obviously different from the editor’s, which again illustrates the ambiguity of language and suggests that meaning can never be fixed. The fact that the magazine would rather publish photos of a nude beach diminishes the importance of Czechoslovakia’s struggle, but it further emphasizes the body.
Themes
