Character Analysis
The Clevises consist of Papa and Mama and a very precocious 14-year-old daughter. The Clevises are the Goldilockses of progressive ideology: they support liberal ideas, but only if they're not too radical, and only until they become mainstream.
Jan thinks of the Clevises as a bricklayer's level: "The Clevis family could serve as an intellectual air bubble. Placed on some idea or other, it would indicate precisely whether or not that was the best progressive idea possible" (VII.4.4).
The best progressive idea, of course, always has a chance of being adopted by everyone in society. Nothing too risky for the Clevises. Their daughter, however, teeters on the edge of radicalism—at least as it's defined by Mama and Papa. Like her parents, she thinks that women have the right to sunbathe without tops on. But she also rants about personal pleasure and the desire not to become a sex object. And that's just awkward—especially since womanizing Jan is in the room.
The Clevis family doesn't play a huge role in Jan's story, but Papa Clevis makes a fabulous splash at Passer's funeral when his hat flies off his head and lands on Passer's coffin, which has already been lowered into the grave.
Papa Clevis finds himself in an awkward position: either he ignores the flight of his hat and risks breaking the solemn mood of the ceremony or he steps in front of the person speaking. It's a choice between a social faux pas and the risk of inappropriate laughter. It's another type of border for Kundera, and one that proves that even the final drama of our lives isn't immune to absurdity.