There are two faces to every Czech. The evidence for these faces seems to be more difficult to uncover than the usual sides people show in other countries. It is not simply the more reserved public side that follows certain social etiquette as can be observed in Poland and most of America, although it is fading quite fast in the states.
Each generation seems to become more casual and slowly erase the line between public and private life. Especially, with after the advent of online social networks that allow nearly everything to be shared with whoever has the ability to view ones profile.
However, the contrasting sides of average Czechs are deeper than it ever was in other countries. Only China and Korea could possibly understand the lifestyle these people have had to create for survival during the communist era. Learning to abide by the parties rules so not to be taken in for a random comment made to the wrong individual. Czechs mastered this lifestyle so well that many still act in a similar manner.
They pick a seat on the tram and find a direction to stare without making eye contact in anyway. Of course, everyone remains nearly silent except with a few comments to an acquaintance if they notice one. Even when these two Czech notice each other they will not crack a smile but maintain the stern expression perfectly mastered from years of being watched.
During the communist days people had to be wary of who they met with even if no relationship really existed between them. The party could use any excuse for investigating someone else’s life. There were secret tricks developed for those who did not want to upset the party. Although, many did not care to let the party keep them in fear and developed another extreme.
It was most common for people to only relax in the private of their home. Except conversations still had to be limited in every room but the bathroom. There were some people who did not mind this at all though and saw no reason to restrict their lifestyle. They created an underground that held parties as if nothing had changed from their life before communism.
These artist, writers and intellectuals were used as an example of how comrades should not be living. They were seen as indulgent hedonists and often bothered by the party for their actions. Some left the country to continue their career of writing text not allowed in the Czech Republic as Milan Kundera. Others were arrested for music that was too unique for the party to accept like that of the Plastic People of the Universe.
Even the most serious of Czechs can enjoy a viewing for one of Jan Svankmajer’s films since they revel most anything eccentric. Especially when it is accompanied by subtle humor that is not easy to detect. Svankmajer has an interesting approach to filming food and advertisements that provides humor for most Czechs but foreigners are often disgusted or simply cannot understand it.
The people of the Czech Republic who developed a double life during communism have only increased their complicated personas. Unlike the public and private sides of Americans, or even the Czech’s neighbors in Poland, is quite easier to detect. However, it seems that Czechs were more complex before communism and simply added another layer to their character to live under the party. Kundera explained characters as not being born like people, of woman, but born of situation.
“A sentence, a metaphor, containing in a nutshell a basic human possibility...They are my own unrealized possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them and equally horrified by them,” Kundera wrote on development of characters in his novels.
There is a connection to this expansion of a false persona to that of any individual in reality. The Czech people have morphed over time because of various events that affected their society. Communism was not the only time their culture was twisted around. When Catholicism first spread throughout the country many people were forced to convert. Now the majority holds a negative opinion toward religion and register as Atheists. The history of the Czech Republic is just as complex as the characters united as Czechs.
