Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
What is the importance of character development in literature
Theme in russian literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In Notes from the Underground, the narrator is tormented by his desire to be a free individual and by his anger at the class system of Russia. However, these two feelings do not occur at the same time. In part one of the novel, The Underground Man is engulfed with the feeling of wanting free will. Then, in part two the he has a change of heart and is begging for the control of society and the class system. Unfortunately, he tries to become a part of society and fails. The first two chapters serve as an introduction to the narrator, how he lives and how he feels. The first time the underground man clearly writes about his longing to be a free individual is in the third chapter. He writes "Upon my word, they will shout at you, it is no use protesting: it is a case of twice two makes four! Nature does not ask your permission, she has nothing to do with your wishes, and whether you like her laws or dislike them, you are bound to accept her as she is, and consequently all her conclusions. A wall, you see, is a wall ... and so on, and so on." (1.3.4-5). The narrator does not like that h...
The Descent of Alette by Alice Notley follows Alette's journey through the underground subway system, which ends up being a whole different world. Alette's mission to take down the oppressive tyrant that controls this underground world, symbolizes her desire to confront male hegemony. Through refrences to the thesis, form, and historical context it is undeniable that the author is taking the reader on a journey through Alette's struggle with patriarchy.
Throughout the story there is a conflict that grows from start to finish. It is a struggle between doing what is right for your family and living life in order to make yourself happy and feel complete and right. The idea of freedom comes up with little Guy's speech and Guy's outlook on life. The idea of the wall of fire may be significant in that it stands for looming downfall, or having feelings, emotions, or conflicts pile up inside of a person to the point of breaking.
Inevitably on his metaphoric passage to heroism, Robert has many turning points in relation to Marxism that change his outlook on the world and war around him like the class division, the oppressors and the oppressed and, the mini revolutions that take place in a struggle for power. Findley presents the reader with a story that challenges the conceptions and truths that humans believe of human nature. Through the plot of Robert, Findley begins to convey the message that life goes on and as humans the only truth is that we are becoming. This is similarly seen in Marxism as it believes the cycle is ongoing but slowly and surely society is becoming. In one way Robert's journey itself is a reflection of society and the path that it continues to take.
In describing the setting, the general locale is the prison in the coldest part of Russia- Siberia, geographically but socially depicting the social circumstances in the prison, but draws analogies to the general social, political and economic circumstances of Russia during the Stalinist era (form 1917 revolution up to 1955). The symbolic significance of the novel and the film (genres) reflects experiences, values and attitudes of the Russian society. The genres reflect the origins of the Russian social disorders and massive counts of political misgivings which watered down real communism in Russia. We are constantly reminded of the social and cultural heritage and originality of Russian ethnic groups through those different levels of meanings
In the first excerpt, he describes his father turning on an overseer that was assaulting his wife and the overseer’s promise that nothing would come of it if he let him walk away unharmed. This was not the case, of course, and authorities soon followed him until he was captured and tortured. “…The
Frequently, the public debate over the those problems which occur in poverty-ridden urban environments is presented as if the inhabitants were copies of Dostoevsky's underground man who differed mainly in that they frequently had less education and more pigment in their skin. That is to say, although there are valid comparisons that can be drawn between the Underground Man and the inhabitants of west Baltimore who are so vividly depicted in The Corner, there are also important differences that make any claim of strict equality between a Russian intellectual from the nineteenth century and a 20th-century tout or slinger an absurd caricature. Moreover, the intent of portraying inner-city residents as Underground Men and Women is, frequently, to blame these people for all of their own problems, something t...
In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, discuss the modification of the natural world and human nature. The books come from different perspectives but discuss these same ideas. Notes from the Underground comes from the perspective of a man who is somewhat in hiding in a small corner of a room with a servant in an attempt to escape the outside world of Petersburg, Russia. While Oryx and Crake comes from a boy who is also living on the outskirts of society but travels in an effort to escape the tragedy at home.
In the passage of the Narrative of Fredrick Douglass, the author masterfully conveys two complimentary tones of liberation and fear. The tones transition by the use of diction and detail. The passage is written entirely in first person, since we are witnessing the struggles of Fredrick Douglass through his eyes. Through his diction, we are able to feel the triumph that comes with freedom along with the hardships. Similarly, detail brings a picturesque view of his adversities. Since the point of view is first person, the reader is able to be a part of the Douglass’ struggles with his new freedom. With diction, detail, and point of view, the reader is able to get a rare glimpse into the past of Fredrick Douglass.Fredrick Douglass’ diction is powerful as he describes his life as a slave and with his new freedom. Fredrick Douglass calls being enslaved an act of “wretchedness,” yet he was able to remain “firm” and eventually left the “chains” of slavery. Fredrick Douglass expresses that being enslaved is a wretched act and that no man should ever deserve such treatment. Despite being a slave, he kept strong and eventually broke the chain of society. However, Fredrick Douglass experienced great “insecurity” and “loneliness” with his new freedom, and was upon a new “hunting-ground.” His new freedom brought other devastating factors, being a new state without any friends, which caused his loneliness. In this new state, he grew insecure for he was in a new danger zone where at any time his freedom could be rejected. With new freedom come new obstacles, which are described in the diction of Fredrick Douglass.
To put it briefly, the Underground Man is the sole reason that he himself cannot be free despite is overwhelming desire. His obsessive behavior will not permit him to lead a normal life and he will forever be a prisoner of his own mind. The only reason that any other people have a hand in this imprisonment is because the Underground Man allows them to. Even when writing his “Notes” the Underground Man cannot help but to become consumed with scribbling down every little bit that he can, to the point that his “notes” must be cut short by an outside source.
In some moments of my life I too feel shackled or chained down. Whether it’s in a relationship or just trying to get ahead in life. In my teenage years I was careless and figured that since I was young I had time to waste. I held my own self back from doing a lot of things I should have done back then that would have made life a whole lot easier for me now. In the allegory, once the prisoner returned from the outside world he shared his stories with the other prisoners. The prisoners wanted to hear nothing of what the man had to say. Nor did they believe him. It reminds me of when I took a trip to Hawaii for my cousin's wedding. Everything there was so beautiful and the air smelled so fresh and clean.I took a lot of pictures and when I returned home I let my friends know all about the wonderful experience I had. Some did not want to hear it at all saying things like “ Well I will never go there so I don't care”, or “Your putting extras on it i’m sure it was not that pretty. People are afraid or quick to refuse new information or ideas because they are so comfortable in believing their own beliefs or what society wants them to believe. In the case of the allegory the prisoners all wanted to only believe what they were subjected to. They were afraid to receive knowledge. Most of us these days do the exact same thing simply because we believe we know it
Yuri Trifonov chronicled the life of a Soviet conformist named Vadim Aleksandrovich Glebov in his novel, “The House on the Embankment.” Vadim Glebov leads a life in support of the Soviet Union’s tyranny and oppression of human rights in order to gain the high social status and power he envied beginning in childhood. The novel is a narrative that revolves around Glebov’s education and success, and it depicts what life was like as a Soviet citizen between the 1930’s and 1970’s. Through Glebov’s revealed repressed memories, we see the ultimate example of conformity.
The confines of ignorance and both physical and mental abuse kept slaves from self discovery and rebellion. Frederick Douglass provides the journey of life as a brute to a free man. Frederick Douglass’s new identity included having a wife, a job of his own, a house, and the goal to reach out and help the people that were still stuck in slavery. From the rock bottom life of a slave he built himself up and became a successful
... book also shows how even a man who has been beaten, starved and “broken in body, mind and soul” can rise from slavery and fight back. Douglass goes through many awful events as a slave, but once he finds that reading is the way to freedom his life is changed forever. He continually is filled with the want to escape slavery and even goes as far as to fight one of his masters in an event Douglass calls “the turning point in (his) career as a slave” On September 3rd, 1838 Frederick Douglass was a free man. Although little is said about his escape from slavery, he tells us not only of how it felt to finally be free but also gives us some details on what it was like to be free for the first time, not trusting anyone and feeling paranoid that at any time he may be caught , and then slowly becoming accepting of the help offered to him and making a new life for himself.
Crime and Punishment and Notes from the Underground Fyodor Dostoyevsky's stories are stories of a sort of rebirth. He weaves a tale of severe human suffering and how each character attempts to escape from this misery. In the novel Crime and Punishment, he tells the story of Raskolnikov, a former student who murders an old pawnbroker as an attempt to prove a theory. In Notes from the Underground, we are given a chance to explore Dostoyevsky's opinion of human beings.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Henrik Ibsen were two famous writers of the nineteenth era who became famous by writing about realism with their masterpieces; Dostoyevsky with the “Notes from Underground” and Ibsen with “Hedda Gabler”. Both works are based on the realistic picture of the whole society, between rich and poor, where their protaonist’s actions are result of social determinism. Social determinism is the theory that describes a person whose behavior is influenced by the society. According to this concept, the characters of “Notes from Underground” the underground man, and “Hedda Gabler” Hedda Tesman, are products of social determinism.