In Notes from Underground, author Fyodor Dostoevsky writes of this "underground man". This man is portrayed as one who is independent, strong, and powerful, but in reality, he is isolated, weak, and not necessarily powerful. The thing is, the Underground Man is not prepared to accept this reality. He uses scapegoats on himself to make it seem as if he is in complete control of his life. The first line of the novel states, "I am a sick man...I am a spiteful man" (1). It is as if he wants to gain an upper hand on the reader by beating the reader to the punch in calling himself a sick and spiteful man.
Reading this though, I came to a realization of sort. It's interesting to me how we all are bagging on this man for being the way he is, but let's face it, we all have a little bit of the underground man in us. We all strive to be independent, but for this generation, are we really with all the rules, guidelines, and eyes watching over our every move. It raises this question: Are we all underground men and women?
We all do things here and there to come off as strong and independent, and not to seem so "spiteful" and "wicked". We all want to be accepted into society, but in many cases, the reality of ourselves prohibits us from letting go the way this Underground Man does.
Even now as I'm writing this, I don't think I'm any sort of Underground Man, but as I think deeper into the bowels of my brains, I realize I don't want to come off as him, and that to a certain degree, we are all like that.
So maybe, just maybe, I can give this guy some slack throughout the novel, and accept him the way he is instead of judging him. After all, he might just be the genuine person that hides inside all of us.
Great post! I liked your point that even though we are all in one way or another like the Underground Man, we criticize him and condemn him. This may be one way that we -- just like the Underground Man -- try to appear strong and independent. This made me wonder, does our pretense work better than the Underground Man's?
ReplyDeleteI love YOUR connection between the novel and our world today, namely you. It's clear that you can make some sort of a relationship with this odd Underground Man, and I'm sure that will make your understanding of the novel a lot more clear!
ReplyDeleteI love your idea that "he might just be the genuine person that hides inside all of us." A scary thought, potentially, because I'm not sure how comfortable we all are with being that contradictory, that flawed, that...well, human. Maybe Dostoevsky isn't giving us an unfamiliar character as much as he's holding up a mirror and asking us to look at the parts of ourselves that make us squirm a bit? Would love to see your thoughts as you finish the novel!
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