The Resilient Czech Spirit, on Display in Bohumil Hrabal's "Closely Observed Trains" and "I Served the King of England"

Bohumil Hrabal was born in 1915, and lived through some of the most tumultuous years of Czech history. Hrabal grew up in the time of the First Republic, when literature moved away from nationalism to a more aesthetic view. In this frame, Hrabal likely grew up reading Karel Čapek, Jaroslav Hašek and Vladislav Vančura.

Structurally, Closely Observed Trains and I Served the King of England are very different. Closely Observed Trains is a novella, a glimpse into the last part of Miloš Hrma's life, which began as a young train apprentice who slit his wrists because of his "ejaculation praecox." On the other hand, I Served the King of England is an epic, a journey through the life of the little Waiter Ditie, whose main aim in life is to become a millionaire.

The characters themselves have a very basic carnal nature, with a magical realist attitude. The humanistic elements of their adolescence, including their desire to discover sex and money, allow the reader to become the characters. However the characters actions and reactions are so extreme, that the reader is still anchored in the reality of the world.

For example, Miloš Hrma is unable to hold his erection while he is trying to have sex with his girlfriend for the first time. This humanistic experience becomes warped when we learn that this is the reason he slit his wrists. On the other hand, Ditie garnishes the naked lap of a prostitute, who immediately falls in love with him for such a tender act. The said prostitute comes to the restaurant where Ditie works to bring him back his money and asks him to come again because she loves him. They reality of a boy going to a prostitute is relatable, but beautiful prostitutes don’t fall in love with short, young waiters.

Along with Hrabal’s magical realist flare, his characters’ names are very paronomastic, giving the novels an almost parabolic effect. Hrabal’s paronomasia is usually lost to non-Czech readers because of the translation process, but its importance to understand the novels is still critical.

The most obvious paronomastic name is the protagonist of I Served the King of England, Ditie, which means child in Czech. The character Ditie is not only physically small like a child, but his ambitions and goals are childish. Ditie is ashamed of his name, until it allows him to marry Lise, a German, by ‘verifying’ his Aryan ancestry. He childishly thinks that the Germans will respect him more than the Czech saying, “ Now I was Herr Ditie, and for the Germans there was no child in my name, and I bet the word reminded them of something completely different, or maybe they couldn’t connect it to anything at all in German.” (Hrabal 135). He quickly finds out that his name has nothing to do with how he is treated, “ I was still just a runty busboy as far as they were concerned, a Czech pipsqueak, a pygmy.”(Hrabal 142).  Even though they do not understand the meaning of his name he is still thought of as a child.

 Another important paronomastic name is Mr.Skřivánek from I Served the King of England. In Czech, the word skřivan means lark, fitting for the character that served the king of England.  The headwaiter Skřivánek who sees everything, like a lark flying above the restaurant with the ability to see right into the very minds of its patrons.

While Ditie and Skřivánek can be readily interpreted as having paronomastic roots, Zdenĕk, the headwaiter from the Hotel Trichota who becomes a main player in the Communist party, only contains traces of a premeditated meaning. If examined closely Zdenĕk resembles the words zděný and zedník or zednický. Zděný, zedník or zednický  mean brick, bricklayer and bricklayer’s respectively. This is a reasonable association, with the brick and bricklayer conjuring up the image of the Communist ideal of the Worker. However it is also ironic as Zdenĕk was never a Worker, but a political figure that only dictated the masses to be bricklayers while he led a privileged life. The irony continues as Ditie’s last job mandated by the Communists is as a Worker, fixing and maintaining roads in the country.  Although this association might seem distant, it is also important to note that Zdenĕk is one of the few male characters actually referred to by his first name, rather than his last.

Hrabal’s use of paronomastic names can also be seen in Closely Observed Trains. As with I Served the King of England the protagonist, Miloš Hrma has the most interesting paronomastic name. Miloš can be associated with several Czech words, milost, meaning mercy, compassion, pardon and reprieve, is the closest spelling wise, although probably not the closest in meaning when considering his second name, Hrma. The Czech word hrma means mons pubis. Understanding the meaning of hrma allows for a better interpretation of the intended paronomasia of the name Miloš. Instead of milost a better interpretation for the lexeme of Miloš would be milostný, meaning love, sexual and romantic. This interpretation is fully applicable to the character of Miloš. Miloš is more interested in losing his virginity than in the German occupation of his country. When he was taken on to one of the German trains as punishment, he reminisces about his unsuccessful sexual encounter with his girlfriend, Masha, rather than whether the Germans will kill him.