In this novel, the events of what is known as the Prague Spring serve as backdrop, a time when the Soviet military occupied the city and made it known that the people of Poland were not in control of their own destinies. Tomas had once condemned the Communists and so is asked to leave the city, and he and Tereza travel to Switzerland. When they later return to Prague, it is with the knowledge that they will never be allowed to leave again.

The political and social structure in each of these works informs the personal development of the young characters in different ways, and what links these works is the sense that young people come of age in a context, a context formed by the society in which they live. How they react to that society helps shape the transition they make from adolescence to adulthood and from childhood...
[ View Full Essay]