Summary This novel starts out in the setting of Prague, Czechoslovakia, in the year 1968. The main character, Mr. Sverak, who was a trusted upon bureaucrat, is somehow involved in a phase of repression that is better described as the Soviet Union invading Czechoslovakia. Despite all that, he is a man that does not look back in life, always moving forward. Mr. Sverak was a man that was never looking for goodness, or anything that may seem good. Later on he is called upon to work as the person that signs off on arrest warrants for people that have publically rebelled against the state. Of course, these he must abide by the rules of the tasks the state gives him, and that causes him to really seem to struggle with his own self- preservation. Mr. Sverak mentions that he feels like …show more content…
This character was a representative of everything that is good in the world, and has the belief that there will one day be better days in the world. Mr. Sverak could not retain a similar mindset. He notices that he has to choose between what the right thing to do is, and what his safest bet is. He realizes this concept when his path is crossed by a prostitute, and spirits of people who have disappeared. This in turn causes him to realize that that in the world there is nothing to believe in, nothing to guide civilization, only a choice, the right thing versus the safe thing to do in any situation. Shortly after he begins to experience emotions that he was not accustomed to experiencing before such as remorse, guilt, sadness, laughter and love. This job that he had made him harm innocent people that have never done him harm, which causes him to feel all sorts of emotions and see him descending into worse and worse places. This mindless job of signing off on warrants was becoming too difficult for him to handle. Mr. Sverak quickly begins to understand that the goodness people find in life is not hypocritical in the slightest, rather a fact that is made by choices that we as