The Joke | The Joke by Milan Kundera Summary in Urdu Hindi | Literature Novel

#The_Joke | #The_Joke_by_Milan_Kundera Summary in Urdu Hindi | #English_Literature_Novel
The Joke | #The_Joke_by_Milan_Kundera_Summary in Urdu Hindi | English Literature Novel
The Joke | The Joke by Milan Kundera Summary in Urdu Hindi | English Literature Novel
The Joke
by
Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera, a Czech-born French author, fled the Eastern Bloc in 1975. He is best known for his 1984 book The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Highly honored, he has received the Jerusalem Prize and The Austrian State Prize for European Literature, as well as the international Herder Prize. He has been nominated multiple times for the Nobel Prize for Literature. The author of ten major novels published between 1967 and 2014, he has also released collections of short stories and poetry and is the author of four plays and a wide variety of essays.
The Joke (1967) centers on Ludvik Jahn, a sarcastic man prone to jokes, and the way his actions affect those around him.
The novel is told from four perspectives—that of Jahn and three people he comes into contact with: his frequent victim Helena, devout Christian Kostka, and Moravian patriot Jaroslav.
The book serves as a satire of the repressive nature of the Czech Communist party.
Thematically, it explores the humorless nature of Eastern Bloc authoritarianism, as well as the ways in which small actions can spiral through a lifetime.
The book is considered one of the defining works of mid-twentieth-century Eastern European literature.
It was first translated into English in 1969, but Kundera was critical of the translation and a more faithful version was reissued in 1982.
Adapted into a 1968 film by director Jaromil Jires, it was banned after the Warsaw Pact invasion that led to more repressive policies in the country.
Jahn enters his hometown Morava with a specific goal in mind, but his goals are hardly admirable or heroic.
Along his way, he sees a woman whom he was once deeply in love with and flashes back to his past.
The book is told in a non-linear fashion, the majority spent in the past as the reader learns how events that took place during Jahn’s adolescence made him the man he is today.
When he was a teenager, Jahn thought he had his life fully planned out.
He was dating a girl named Marketa and was loyal to the Socialist party.
He went to university and planned to apply for a high-level government position upon graduation.
He was smart and talented, although he occasionally ran into trouble in school for being an independent thinker, which was not encouraged among party members.
When Marketa goes away to a special training camp run by the party, she writes to tell him about the wonderful time she’s having and how she is embracing the doctrine of the party.
He writes a postcard back, including a sarcastic joke that could be interpreted as being against the party; she doesn’t write him again while she’s there, save for a brief summary of her activities.
He soon learns that Party officials got ahold of his postcard and considered it disloyal. They eject him from the party and kick him out of university, essentially destroying his entire life’s trajectory within minutes.
He is sent to a detention center for re-education, where he works in the mines and performs hard labor under the careful watch of a strict commander.
The party believes that hard labor will push out negative thoughts about the party and make Jahn a loyal socialist again.
On a break from labor, he meets a woman named Lucie and falls in love with her. However, he suspects that he’s infatuated with her more because of what she represents—a break from his torment—than who she actually is. Still, he appreciates any break from the drudgery of his existence.
She brings him flowers passed through the barbed wire fence, although they rarely talk due to how few breaks he has.
They eventually meet to try to consummate their relationship, but she pushes him off at the last minute. That is the last they speak to each other.
After he is released from the mines, Jahn tries to find a new life for himself but is hesitant to commit after the way his last two relationships ended.
He establishes a career as a scientist, but he is filled with resentment at the way he has been treated by the party and his former friend.
Consumed with thoughts of revenge, he gets an opportunity when he meets Helena Zamenek, the wife of Patel Zamenek.
Patel is the Socialist Party official who conducted his trial and led to his expulsion.
He decides to seduce Helena and end Patel’s marriage; the two begin an affair.
However, this “joke” is ill-fated; Patel and his wife have had problems in their relationship for a long time.
After her one-night stand with Jahn, Helena decides to divorce Patel; Jahn realizes he has actually helped Patel.
He flies into a rage, and when Helena finds out how she’s been used, she attempts suicide. Jahn is left alone again, forced to realize that his entire life has been a fruitless joke.