Thursday, February 14, 2008

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.

1 comment:

Donald said...

Yes, good character notes. I agree that control is am important theme at this point.

Could you use this section to claim that the novel is primarily political in nature?