 The inspiration for Atheis came , according to Oemarjati , sometime during the early 1940s . In Mihardja 's observations , Marxism – Leninism and anarcho @-@ nihilism were among the most common ideologies in Indonesia ; this led him to depict Rusli and Anwar as holding those ideologies . Meanwhile , emerging writers such as Idrus , Asrul Sani , and Chairil Anwar were increasingly critical of the older generation of Indonesian authors , whom they decried as narrow @-@ minded and provincial . Mihardja , who was older than many contemporary writers and wrote in a similar style to the older authors , disliked this comparison ; according to Maier , this may have led him to represent Chairil Anwar as a much @-@ flawed character . Mihardja formalised his concept throughout the early 1940s and completed the writing during a period of unemployment from May 1948 until February 1949 . 
