Saturday, January 9, 2016

I would rather be active

The Underground Man constantly puts down a man of action because he believes contemplating on the value of goals is what makes a man an interllectual, like himself. This is the key reason why UM dislikes Zverkov. I would much rather be the Zerkov because he enjoys life and makes active decisions instead of isolating himself and becoming  a miserable man who inflicts pain upon himself, and finds hatred in everyone he meets. 

2 comments:

Jac said...

UM is not only putting down people of action, but he is also putting himself down. He seems to see himself as a man of action in another sense....he acts upon his own desires, not what is reasonable. For example, if he were ill, he would refuse to go to the doctor just because these are his moral principles. His spiteful nature does not help anyone, and only hurts himself. He isnt necessarily "not active" he just does not act in the same way as zverkov. Finally, UM finds joy in his life by accomplishing tasks, so he clearly is sort of the definition of "working toward something," or active.

Unknown said...

I think that if the underground man was more active as opposed to just thinking about everything, he would have a much better life. He is constantly just overthinking himself and his life and that is what causes him to be so miserable. If he did something about his misery and went out and became social, I believe that he would absolutely be a much better person. Although this is not necessarily the right thing to do, people look to others for their own happiness. That is a common part of human nature. When the underground man has an actual conversation with Liza, he seems to be happier at least for a little while until he puts his guard back up. His life with action would absolutely be more fulfilling than his life of self-consciousness.