Liza, for example, treasures the qualities of romantic love while the Underground Man is incapable of love. The Underground Man’s consistent theme of contradiction is exemplified throughout the story where he experiences a multitude of emotions ranging from narcissistic and egocentric to embarrassment and humiliation. Although the Underground Man envisions himself challenging those who have wronged him, he does not have the “moral courage” to stand up for himself. By remaining in the underground, the Underground Man is able to escape from reality where is able to manufacture his own world. An argument can be made that Dostoevsky used the personal aspects of the Underground Man to show the pattern of similarities between him and contemporary society.
However, it must be noted that the intelligence that the Underground Man possesses is not what fits the definition of intelligence. Instead, Dostoyevsky wanted his audience to know that his intelligence comes from his Western beliefs and for them to realize that the narrator is, in reality, ignorant. This form of irony exposes the author’s dislike for the movement to Westernize
Author contradicts himself, since he implies that the same action can be both courageous, and cowardly. “They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide, and in many respects this was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down, it required perfect balance and perfect posture.”(p.21) This quote clearly describes how running, and hiding are the displays of cowardice. The instinct to run and hide in fear resides in every soldier, but they try their best to hide it, since it is the weakness, it is the flaw; it is cowardice. On the other hand, the following quote describes the same action, with a radically different connotation: “I would not swim away from my hometown and my country and my life. I
The citizens in the society are conforming to the unknown citizen that the government is speaking so highly of. Second, the poem shows the loss of individuality in the citizens. The speaker says “He worked in a factory and never got fired” (text 2). This shows that the unknown citizen was average. Never getting fired isn’t an accomplishment that should be memorialized, but the government wants other citizens to be as average as the unknowncitizen.
He uses an empathetic use of alliteration by narrating his inner feelings described as “a sudden swell of helplessness.” (55) He also reveals to us that he feared embarrassment. Everybody who reads this knows the pressure and expectations for something and not being able to do it. “All those eyes on me-the town, the whole universe-and I couldn't risk the embarrassment.” (57) He feels the guilt and pressures of everybody around him. He feels as though if he does not to go war, he would be seen as not “masculine” or heroic. This helps his emotions stand out and be known
The society could not just stop at education, they control family too, in a very horrible way. Let me show you “All the men older than twenty and all the women older than eighteen are sent for one night to the City Palace of Mating. And each of the men have one woman assigned to them… but women never see their children and children never know their parents” (Rand 41). This shows how the society handles with childbirth and family. Now the society will not even let the citizens show emotion towards anything or anyone which creates a family.
Society the Thief: Examining the Motif of Individuality in “The Sociology of Leopard Man” In the article “The Sociology of Leopard Man” written by Logan Feys, I agree that society takes people’s individuality to make them fit in and be like everyone else even they should be themselves. There are multiple example, explanations, and resolutions on this situation. People changing their appearance, Leopard Man refusing to give in, conformity trending, and seceding from society are some of the examples and solutions to this problem. Many people have multiple reasons and ways to change their appearance to fit into society. For example, people change their appearance through hair mutilations, tattoos, and piercings: “Individuals who change their
Because he is imprisoned, he is inferior to the Nazis, and he knows he will never overcome them alone. He is angry because he cannot go back to his barrack, and he blames the Jews because if they were not there, he would not be there unloading them. He is indifferent in the beginning, and once he begins this emotional crisis, he can
From his generous charity to his murder of two innocent women, Raskolnikov clearly lives with a divided mindset. However, deep within his two “selves” exists another personality. Critics believe that “most of the characters found in Dostoevsky’s novels reflect the author himself” (Pribic). In Crime and Punishment, readers can see elements of the man in his protagonist. Whether one looks at the people in the two men’s lives, the ideas they were fascinated by, or the setting in which they lived, the novel holds too many connections between the author and his character to ignore.
What if the narrator was a calculated killer. He does say that “ I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire.” (Poe,1843).