The Door by Miroslav Holub

1. Provide a summary of the text

The Door is a poem written by Czech poet Miroslav Holub in 1967. The purpose of the
poem was to persuade readers, especially people in Czech at that time to get out of
their comfort zone, break the barriers and seek for freedom. In order to persuade,
Holub uses imperative mood Go and open the door at the start of first four stanzas.
After WWII, Czech citizens were restricted by the Soviet Union for personal freedom,
freedom of speech and freedom of media. At the time when Holub were writing this
poem, the Writers' Union of Czech started to criticize the leadership of the Communist
Party of Czech. Later in October, students in Prague began to protest against the
leadership of the Party as well as the limited freedom, but they were suppressed by the
police. More and more Czech citizens realised that the leadership of the Communist
Party was bad and they wanted freedom, Human right and better opportunities. That
was the background of the poem. The audience of the poem were people who were
ready to discovery new things and to fight for their rights. The poem uses a lot of
imageries to describe the things people may see when they open the door. These
mental images created in readers mind would help Holub achieve his purpose.
2. What is the discovery? Who is making the discovery?
The discovery was about Czech Citizens realising the necessity of breaking the barriers
and fighting for their freedom rights. Czech Citizens were making the discovery.
3. What is the nature of the discovery?
For some citizens, the discovery was discovering something for the first time because
they had never got a change to experience freedom rights before. For other citizens,
the discovery was rediscovering things that had been forgotten. They had experienced
freedom at the beginning, but it had been taken away from them for a long time that
they almost forget about the feeling.
4. What did the process of discovery involve? What motivated the discovery?
The discovery was evoked by necessity. The door in the poem is a symbolism of
barriers and gateway. The barriers are peoples old values and thoughts and gateway is
entrance towards freedom. Through the uses of imperative mood and repetition Go
and open the door, Holub wanted to deliver a strong message that people needed to
break the door in which restricted discovery and went through the door that led to
freedom.
5. What was the reaction or response to the discovery?
For individuals, the discovery was fresh and intensely meaningful in spiritual way as
they realised freedom is a basic need for every human. However, for the society, the
discovery could be questioned. The new discovery may challenge the assumptions and
beliefs held by those people who insisted on the old values.
6. What were the effects of the discovery?
The discovery offered Czech citizens new understandings and renewed perceptions of
themselves and led them to new worlds and values. They found out the importance of
having freedom rights and realised getting out of their comfort zone and fighting for it
was the only way to get their rights back. To the broader society, the discovery was farreaching and transformative as the movement led to the independence of Czech
Republic.
7. To what extent was the experience of discovery shaped by context and
values?
To a significant extent was the experience of discovery shaped by context and values.
For those who were conservative and insisted on old values, the discovery would not be
pleasant for them as it challenged their beliefs. But for the people who were looking for
changes, the discovery was exactly what they wanted.