Section 2 - Soul and Body

SECTION TWO EXAMINES PRECISELY THE SAME STORY AS TOLD IN SECTION 1 ONLY FROM TEREZA´S PERSPECTIVE.

1 After arriving at Tomas´s flat for the first time, how does Tereza feel?

2 She believes that the mind and the body are two separate entities. What are her opinions of her body?

3 Tereza looks like her mother, what do we learn about her Mother´s life. (include who she married, etc.)

4 During Tereza´s childhood, how does her Mother behave towards her?


5 How does her Mother combat the reality of her faded beauty?

6 What does Tereza use as a method of escapism?

7 What music does she hear that gives her comfort?

8 Describe the coincidences that occur on the day that Tomas and Tereza meet.

9 The second time Tereza visits Tomas, she arrives with her heavy suitcase and Anna Karenina, hoping to enter Tomas's world. What do you think Tomas is to her at this point in the novel?

10 When she and Tomas make love, she screams and keeps her eyes fixed on the ceiling. Her scream is "aimed at crippling the senses"; she screams in an attempt to make sex about the spirit, rather than the body. What does she think about her body?

11 In Prague, Tereza's natural intelligence and self-education help her learn photography. She moves from darkroom assistant to staff photographer with Sabina's help. How do her and Sabina celebrate her success?

12 What is Tomas´s reaction to this event? How does he feel?

13 Tomas does not differentiate between Tereza's body and the bodies of other women. How does this make Tereza feel?

14 What reasons may Tereza have for returning to her mother?

15 Thinking constantly of Tomas's affairs, Tereza decides to try and make other women's bodies something she and Tomas share, rather than something that divides them. Describe how she does this.