This commentary will explore Milan Kundera's use of vocabulary, punctuation, and imagery in an excerpt from the novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being. The passage to be analyzed is located in the fourth part of the book entitled “Soul and Body”. It depicts a scene where one of the main characters, Tereza, stands in front of a mirror and finds herself struggling with the conflict between identity and image. His discrepancies with his body act as a trigger for these questions to arise and remind him of memories of his childhood. The entire passage is structured into three sections: one where she criticizes her body, another where questions arise from these observations and finally one where she demonstrates her definitive opinion on the situation. Kundera used language in a way that the reader is able to understand and respond to Tereza's insecurities. In the novel, Kundera makes extensive use of symbolism through many elements, the mirror within them. As a symbol, this artifact functions as a portrait of the truth, of the reality that we sometimes blind ourselves from seeing. There is no compassion; a mirror presents an object as it is before our eyes. The fact that the author uses a single sentence to demonstrate this action ("Tereza entered to dress and stood in front of the large mirror" (l.1)), gives the impression that there is a pause during which the character is able to think about the image returned to him. We are therefore confronted with his direct reaction: “No, there was nothing monstrous in his body” (l.3). From the beginning, we are introduced to an atmosphere of negativity, characteristic of Tereza's attribution of being a "heavy" woman. Through the adjective "monstrous", we understand how Tereza searched...... middle of paper ......ss is shown to be the result of childhood scars regarding her confidence. As a result, she is unhappy with her life and often doubts herself, further lowering her self-esteem. In my opinion, Tereza seeks to unite with Tomas only in the soul, because she knows that the union is something in which no one else can intervene, since a bond of this type has the guarantee of to be eternal, whereas a body can change and decompose. Despite the idea that our soul is supposed to be light because it is what emerges from us after death, I believe it is the body that is light because it only serves one function for a limited period of time, while our soul can be preserved either alone or in unison with another. Works Cited Kundera, Milan. The unbearable lightness of being, trans. Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. New York: Faber and Faber, 1984. Pp. 134-135.