Study Guide

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Part 6, Chapter 24

By Milan Kundera

Part 6, Chapter 24

Franz and Simon are the dreamers of this novel, explains the narrator.
Simon never got along with his mother, and so he never blamed his father for leaving them. His whole life, he dreamed of finding his father.
Simon lived with his mother until he was eighteen.
Then he went to Prague, where Tomas was washing windows. He kept trying to accidentally run into him.
Then he became involved with the editor with the big chin, because the man's fate reminded him of the fate of his father (namely, a victim of political persecution).
The editor didn't even remember the Oedipus article, but Simon persuaded him to talk to Tomas about signing the petition.
Simon, a Christian, liked his father even though he refused to sign the petition.
He likens Tomas's words "punishing people who don't know what they've done is barbaric" to the words of Jesus in the Bible.
Three years after his move to the country, Simon receives a letter from his father asking him to visit.
They did and had a friendly visit.
Four months later, Simon receives a telegram informing him that both Tomas and Tereza have been crushed to death under a truck.
He starts writing to one of his father's former mistresses in France, because he needs to have imaginary eyes on his life.

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