The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

by

Milan Kundera

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The Unbearable Lightness of Being: Part 4, Chapter 20 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Later, walking home with Karenin, Tereza notices the head of a crow on the ground near a housing development. As she moves closer, two boys, who had been hidden behind a wall, run off. She sits by the crow and sees that it has been buried halfway in the dirt. She excavates it, sees that it is badly injured, and takes it home. She lays it gently, wrapped in a scarf, on the bathroom floor and waits.
The buried crow represents weight, in this case, the weight of dirt on a body. Sabina later says that being weighed down with dirt in death is her greatest fear, which is why she has cremation included in her last will and testament. Tereza metaphorically feels this weight and death in Tomas’s infidelity, and in her own encounter with the tall stranger.
Themes
Lightness, Weight, and Dichotomies  Theme Icon
Sex, Love, and Duality of Body and Soul Theme Icon