We judge the Underground Man
because he is contradictory to himself, and he inflicts suffering on himself,
but we do not realize that we do the same things to ourselves in more subtle
ways.
In the novel Notes from Underground by Fyodor
Dostoevsky, the Underground man continuously calls himself a spiteful and
contradicts most of the things that he initially states. He says “I am educated
enough not to be superstitious, but I am,” and “I am educated enough not to be
superstitious, but I am” (3). These are just a few of the contradictions that
he states in the first chapter of the novel. We need these contractions and
judge him harshly for being conflicting with himself, but we unknowingly do
this constantly throughout our lives.
There are weeks
when I am swamped with homework and things to do. I have a lot of assignments,
tests, and quizzes, and I know that I am going to struggle because there is so
much to do, and not enough time to do it. Even though I know how much work that
I have and how I really need to focus and do my work, I still waste time by
watching television or listening to music or doing something with my friends.
In the end, I end up having to stay up extremely late to finish my work and
prepare for the tests or quizzes that I have during the week. This is just one
of the ways that I unknowingly contradict myself.
Another way that
we initially judge the Underground Man is we trace the different ways that he
inflicts suffering on himself, yet we also unknowingly do this constantly
throughout our lives without knowing or even realizing what we are doing. One
of the ways that the Underground Man inflicts suffering on himself is because
he does not consult doctors about his liver, but he believes that his liver is
diseased. He says, “I am perfectly well aware that I cannot ‘get even’ with the
doctors by not consulting them” (4). He talks about his liver pain and how he
thinks that there is a problem with his liver, but he refuses to go talk to a
doctor and figure out a solution to the problem.
The most constant
example of how I inflict suffering upon myself is when I procrastinate on my
schoolwork. Like I said, there are many times throughout the year when I
procrastinate on my work. I am inflicting suffering on myself because I would
not suffer at all if I did my homework ahead of a time, but instead, I inflict
suffering on myself by waiting to do my homework.
Hi Sydney,
ReplyDeleteI totally resonated with what you said about how you contradict yourself and inflict suffering. I always procrastinate on homework, have to stay up late to do it, and then regret not getting enough sleep in the morning. I noticed exactly the same things about the Underground man that stuck with me. I was confused at the beginning and took away only similar things you did. Overall, I thought you did a good job on this post, well done.
Jacob
Hey Sydney,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I think what you talked about is super relatable. We judge the Underground Man, yet we constantly do the same thing with ourselves. I know I do! Like you said with homework, I tend to procrastinate as well. Another example for me is at cheer when I know I need to work on my skills. I know I need to work on my tumbling, yet I often put it off and say ehh I'll just work on it tomorrow. In the end, I end up suffering for it because I have a harder time throwing all this tumbling during my team practice. With all of this, I think that we can be a lot more sensitive and compassionate towards the Underground Man because in the end, he is just writing down the thoughts and ideas that we would never have the courage to express.