Essai- FREN 490
L’ignorance
Megan Parlowe

The novel “Ignorance” by Milan Kundera is a compelling story about the plight of immigration. It exposes immigration through the eyes of an immigrant, and teaches those who are not to try and see through the eyes of another. This novel is chalked full of duality; the state of immigration as ‘others’ see it, and the ‘truth’ of immigration from immigrants themselves. It uses the story of the Odyssey to parallel the themes of leaving and returning, as well as the adventure in between. This paper will explain three main points: firstly, what it is to be an immigrant based on this novel’s account (and how it affects your state of being), secondly, the assumptions held by ‘others’ and their misconceptions of the state of immigration and their effects on immigrants, and lastly how the parallels of these two points of view are effectively expressed through the use of the Odyssey throughout the novel. Being an immigrant, you hold a sense of uniqueness incomprehensible to those around you. The truth about you is nothing like what people assume about you. The nightmares of your past are misconstrued, and the struggles of your present are not understood.
Irena is the main character of this novel. She is an immigrant from Prague who immigrated to France. She lived in France for 20 years, and when her boyfriend’s work changed locations, she found herself moving back to Prague. Right away, this novel exposes the duality within Irena, and what it means to be an immigrant. Through the story of Irena, other immigrants are introduced, new stories are told, and a web is weaved about their experiences. Kundera effectively expresses a clear understanding of what it is to be an immigrant, and shares with us the commonality between all immigrants through the characters in her book. Because of the varied reasons in which they left their native countries; and their individual pasts, each character possesses a different emotional relationship