 Mihardja , a journalist @-@ cum @-@ literary editor who associated with the eccentric poet Chairil Anwar and the Socialist Party of Indonesia , wrote Atheis from May 1948 to February 1949 . The Indonesian used in the novel was influenced by Sundanese and harkens back to earlier works by Minang writers , as opposed to Mihardja 's contemporaries who attempted to distance themselves from the earlier style . Dealing mainly with faith , the novel also touches on the interactions between modernity and traditionalism . Although the writer insisted that the work was meant to be realistic , symbolic representations from subjective meanings to the novel being an allegory have been advanced . 
