ULOB- The Grand March

Summary

1. stalin's son and shit
2. Stalins' son- son of god
3. Does God have intestines?
4. Adams virile member
5. Kitsch
6. Sabina and May Day
7. The senator and happiness
8. Kitsch and communism/america
9. totlaitiarian kitsch
10. Tereza and Sabina compared
11. sabina's enemy = Kitsch
12. Was she a hippocrit?
13. political kitsch
14. Franz wants to go to Cambodia
15. Americans taking over in Cambodia
16. American Kitsch
17. Photographers at the parade
18. The actress wants the spotlight
19. Death of a photographer in the mine field
20. The end of the march
21. laughable play acting
22. retreat
23. The four categories of people
24. The dreamers Franz and Simon
25. Sabina in california
26. Franzs' attack
27. death of Franz
28. irony in death
29. kitsch in death

Themes and Motifs

• Happiness
• Kitsch
• shit
• politics
• communism and capitalism
• american and communist similarities
• death
• irony
• art
• camera
• control

Characters

Sabina

Sabina becomes more distant in the novel. She tries to run away again and again from her fear of being weighed down. She appears very unhappy and lonely.

Franz

Idolises Sabina. Constant dreamer. He wants to stop being Kitsch but is too sentimental and wishy washy...he is portrayed as naieve and very very stupid in his decisions, especially towards the end of his life.

Simon

Tomas' son becomes a much fuller character in this section. We see how needy he is of a connection to the father he never knew. There is an impression of him being religious by his use of vocab.

Narrative Voice

This section is perhaps the most political of all. Kundera seems intent of making the point that there are many similarities between america and USSR especially in terms of Kitsch. The reader gets the impression that Kundera does not approve of either consitiution

Place

Place becomes important once again in this section. Contrasted are Russia, america and Cambodia. Kundera uses different situations within these countries to demonstrate how similar and futile the fight against Kitsch is in all these countries. The idea of control within them all is also explored. Especially through cameras.