 According to Mihardja , religious thinkers blasted the novel for depicting Hasan , whom they interpreted as representative of religion and religious people , as unable to overcome temptation ; they also disliked the novel 's lack of in @-@ depth discussion of religion , necessary for a better understanding of theism . Marxists and anarchists also felt that their ideologies were not well explained . They considered Rusli and Anwar not truly representative of the thoughts of Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche . In response , Mihardja wrote that the characters were meant to be realistic , and that few people have as much knowledge about an ideology as demanded by the critics . 
