Comparing the Cultural and Social Critiques of Notes from Underground a

Cultural and Social Critiques of Notes from thermionic vacuum tube and Invisible while It is understanding sensationself and the power structures of society that helps oneness gain authenticity, and ultimately.. power. Notes from Underground and Invisible Man murderer a wide variety of hearty critiques. While some critiques are explicit within the plot, others are inexplicit in statements of characters and the relations between two or more characters. umteen of the ideas of social critique in Notes from Underground have direct parallels or antitheses in Invisible Man. Most--if not all--of the critiques cash in ones chips the time, location, and historical context in which they occur. The greatest value that the critiques in the two texts have to offer is that they share with the unalter satisfactory human condition. Notes from Underground and Invisible Man offer a variety social critiques, most prominently in nationalism and ethnical pride, an exclusive community versus an inclusive community, and the power structures within society. Nationalism is one of the main targets of the critique in Notes from Underground. The underground mans highly self-centered temper has a direct parallel in the ideas he has about his country. He says, We, in Russia, have no fools that is well known. That is what distinguishes us from foreign lands (Dostoevsky 40). much(prenominal) nationalistic propaganda was intended for all Russians to consider and evaluate. At the time the story was written, Western civilization seemed to be extending its influence everywhere. As Dr. Lutomski pointed out in lecture, this caused many to adopt an isolationist philosophy, believing that the only way a country can be pure to its own citizens is to cut itself off from the outside world. Dostoevsky is presenti... ...s within a society must be able to channel that diversity into a feeling of unity that makes all of the individuals in all of the cultures feel like they belong to the indiv isible whole. When one has open up an entire group of people to identify with, one can transcend to a new level of self-understanding. And it is understanding oneself and the power structures of society that helps one gain authenticity, and ultimately power. Works CitedBakhtin, Mikhail. Problems of Dostoevskys Poetics. Ed. and trans. Caryl Emerson. Introd. by Wayne C. Booth. Theory and History of Literature. Minneapolis U. of manganese Pr., 1984. Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. (Library Ed.). New York Random House, Inc. 1994Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes from Underground A New Translation, Backgrounds and Sources, Responses, Criticism. Norton detailed Edition. New York Norton, 1989.