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Ralph Ellison's The Underground Man

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The Useless Man The Underground Man uses writing as his medium to ramble about his philosophies of the state of the world. He writes down his ideas, and does not intend to share them with anyone. Although there is a purity preserved with The Underground Man not sharing his ideas, overall, his philosophies remain underdeveloped as he only relies on the knowledge he has as an individual to explain them. The Underground Man continually brags about his level of intelligence, but refuses to verbally utter his so-claimed ingenious ideas aloud, demonstrating a certain level of self-consciousness and cowardice on his part. Furthermore, the exposure the audience receives to self-freedom because, The Underground Man does not intend to share his ideas with anyone, is quickly undermined by the consequences of refraining from articulating his ideas, which is a result of his cowardice and laziness. From one’s first …show more content…

If they do not, change will never transpire. The Underground Man has a multitude of problems with the way society operates, but he cannot share them with anyone. Without hope that an idea breeds some sort of action, ideas are just ethereal concepts that remain in an unreachable sphere. It is lazy and cowardly to have the plethora of issues with society, as The Underground Man has, and not intend to do anything with them. Within a society, the people who actually point out problems and do not do anything about them are the issue. Complaints just fill the air with negativity, and do not achieve anything. A person is exceedingly immoral when they understand the problems within a society, and apathetically let them occur, then a person who may actually be causing the problem. It is disheartening to know that people like The Underground Man exist within society. The Underground Man is wasting his time and energy by writing about these issues with no intention to do anything about

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Jennifer Toth details the stories of many who face extreme opposition in the choices they have made in order to survive the ever present wickedness of today’s society. In the book Mole People, Jennifer Toth (1993) exonerates the myths of mole people, those who have chosen to live underground in New York City. Toth quickly becomes immersed not only in the emotional connections she has established, but also in her benevolence towards the underground homeless. Toth (1993) comments, “Tunnel people always amaze outsiders at how well they hide” (p.157). Throughout her writing process, Toth had to overcome many obstacles in order to gain a credible insight into the Mole People’s community.

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414 Words | 2 Pages

Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad by Eric Foner. Eric Foner is the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, Along with that he was a Historian and an Author. The main thesis of the book is the Underground Railroad and the complexity of being a fugitive slave and abolitionist movements. According to Foner, “This book is a study of fugitive slaves and the underground railroad in New York City.” (Foner, 7) New York was always uncertain about how the usage of slavery, “contrast to southern slavery, theirs had been a mild and relatively benevolent institution” (Foner, 29).

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752 Words | 4 Pages

At the same time, the dichotomy between underground and surface can represent the subconscious emotions and drives that the characters conceal or are unaware of in their conscious life; this dichotomy can also stand for the ‘underclass’ of workers and bourgeoisie or aristocracy. Although these various and complex deployments of the tunnel trope appear and reappear throughout the novel, this essay tackles the topic in three sections, corresponding

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474 Words | 2 Pages

(118). He maintains the motif of silence tied to death and terror, adding to the theme of the integrity of dissidence, a call to action. His audience is the world: future and present generations. He is not making a broad statement that ‘people’ must take action, but us; the listener and even himself, both contained in the subject ‘we’. He conveys this through his address to the audience and the context of the year, writing that in 1986 “more people are oppressed than free,” begging the question “how can one not be sensitive to their plight?”

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576 Words | 3 Pages

In the Notes from the Underground several themes are shown about the human psyche. Human suffering, destruction and the fear of accomplishing something are just to name a few. What made this work so great was that these particular themes were seen and made sense with what the fellow was going through. Of course, the Underground Man was evidently mentally ill, but he was a well read man and made a few good points throughout his notes. Whenever he says that people like “suffering”, he means that when we see anything or anyone in pain, we become compassionate; therefore we love to suffer because we want to be compassionate.

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278 Words | 2 Pages

Both novels, Invisible Man and Up from Slavery, depict mainly the realities of facing prejudices; however, there is different in terms of genres, one is an autobiography and the other is fictional. Up From Slavery is an autobiographical novel which depicts Washington 's struggles to gain an education and, later, educate other African Americans on the importance of education. Autobiography is a true story about a real person happening in the real time; therefore, it has the power of convincing readers. Moreover, by focusing on detailing Washington’s personal experiences in working to rise from the position of a slave child during the Civil War, his autobiography also has inspirational and motivational effects on society at that time. It brings

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506 Words | 3 Pages

But run away was a dream for most of them until they find the “Underground Railroad”. The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor railroad. They named it as “Underground Railroad”, because of it was not an easy way to go. So many barriers, darkness and the fear were there with them always. The “railway” term used to describe how the journey works.

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607 Words | 3 Pages

Jennifer Toth’s journey in the tunnels under New York City in search for tunnel dwellers as described in her book, The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City, is quite an adventure. People living in the subway tunnels of NYC were considered to be an urban legend, but Toth’s exploration for these individuals and their communities proved otherwise. Under the busy streets of one of the most popular city in the world is a number of homeless living in a network of sewage, water and train lines. Learning about the life underground is exhilarating and it can change one’s perspective on what they believe kinship, family and society is defined to be. Although it may not seem as though a community can successfully strive in these covert environments, Toth provides many examples of different communities that can be considered as a society.

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479 Words | 2 Pages

Downriver by Will Hobbs tells the story of a group of juvenile delinquents who set out on a dangerous rafting trip down the Grand Canyon. The group, which consists of five boys and one girl, are all in trouble with the law for various reasons, including theft, vandalism, and assault. While the novel portrays the group as complex individuals with their own struggles and motivations, the question remains: should they be charged with crimes for their actions? On one hand, the group of juvenile delinquents in Downriver should be charged with crimes for their actions. First and foremost, they engaged in illegal activities, including theft and vandalism.

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946 Words | 4 Pages

Having invented a whole world in the underground, “his entire being [is] full of what he [wants] to say to them,” (69) but without the proper words, he is left with meaningless ellipses. Fragmented speech only serves to widen, as Cappetti describes, “the insurmountable abyss” that is “separating Fred Daniels and the rest of humanity.” Cappetti also points out that it is Fred Daniels’ rejection of all aboveground values, including language, that renders him incapable of eloquent speech. Yet in the same situation, Dostoevsky’s Underground Man is not only fully capable of expressing himself, language becomes his sole asset that allows him a way back into the aboveground and society. Although he ultimately rejects it in favour of solitude under the floorboards, the choice is still there.

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1610 Words | 7 Pages

According to F. Scott Fitzgerald. (n.d.). The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. Native Americans are usually walking in between two worlds, the non-native world and the native world which they most identify with. As quoting Native American poet, Sherman Alexie in his interview “Living in the outside Boarders” (2013) he states “I know more about being white then you know about being Indian”.

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190 Words | 1 Pages

A long lasting admirer of jazz, Ellison considered Invisible Man as jazz's artistic comparable. Indeed, even the possibility of "intangibility," which is a sight-based (as opposed to sound-based) idea gets contrasted with jazz: Maybe I like Louis Armstrong since he's made verse out of being imperceptible. I figure it must be on the grounds that he's unconscious that he is undetectable. What's more, my own particular handle of intangibility helps me to comprehend his music. [...] Invisibility, let me clarify, gives one a marginally extraordinary feeling of time, you're never fully on the beat.

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509 Words | 3 Pages

In Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s, Notes from Underground, we are presented with a complicated character named The Underground Man. He is exceedingly egocentric and believes that he is more intelligent than those in his surroundings. Despite all this, he is also a man who hates himself and often times feels humiliated. As a person who has isolated himself from society, he consistently analyzes and critiques every interaction with another person. For example, when an officer casually shoves the Underground Man In order to deescalate the situation in the tavern, the Underground Man takes offence to this and plots a long term solution to a meniscal problem.

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327 Words | 2 Pages

He is unable to communicate his knowledge since he is described to be “silent”. In sleep and death a man goes to those places in which he has earned for himself

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1370 Words | 6 Pages

The Underground Man strives to have a role of authority over other individuals, however, his low insignificant position in society detains him from even feeling socially

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