Study Guide

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Part 4, Chapter 23

By Milan Kundera

Part 4, Chapter 23

Tereza fears that the engineer will come back to the bar, because she knows she won't be able to resist him.
But then, after a month goes by without him, she wonders why he didn't come back.
One day the rude bald-headed man tells a dirty joke.
Tereza feels her mother's vulgar world intruding on her again, and so she interrupts him.
They begin to argue. The bald-headed man tells her to be careful, since the only reason she's allowed to work at the bar is because "we let you" (4.23.6).
He then makes it clear that, if he wanted to get rid of her, he could just accuse her of prostitution and get her fired.

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