Study Guide

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Part 2, Chapter 6

By Milan Kundera

Part 2, Chapter 6

When Tereza was fifteen, her mother took her out of school. She went to work as a waitress and gave all her money to her mother, eager to do anything she could to earn her mother's love. She basically ran their household as well.
Her mother used to walk around the house naked. She had no shame.
Tereza did, and it used to bother her that her stepfather would walk in to the bathroom all the time when she was bathing. Tereza's shame made her mother angry; who did Tereza think she was? Why did she feel the need to safeguard her beauty?
Tereza's mother used to make fun of her publicly for her shame at the human body.

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