NFTU is unlike any other book I have read. The novel does not follow a traditional plot line, focusing in on characters or themes. Instead, it delves into the consciousness/unconsciousness of the mind. Rather than tediously discussing symbolism, characters or themes like in previous English classes, we went paragraph by paragraph analyzing and discussing different sides of what we believed the author was trying to get at. When NTFU was initially assigned as an independent reading, I found the book to be tedious and confusing. I did not understand the narrator’s contradictions, nor did I think of relating any of the information to my life. In fact, I thought the underground man was a lunatic until I realized he was expressing truths that we tend to oppress and are afraid to admit to ourselves. Like Mr. Shapiro said in class today, Dostoyevsky is a brilliant writer because he is able to say what we cannot. I found NFTU to be very similar to Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, I feel as though they were somehow influenced by each other, although I enjoyed NTFU more.
NFTU was definitely worth reading because it opened me up to a different genre, one that I might consider picking up on in the future. However, I feel like what made the book worth the read were the discussions. The discussions allowed us to relate the narrator’s ideas to our own, something that was difficult, almost impossible to do with Beowulf or The Canterbury Tales last year in English.Without the discussions, I would have probably stuck with my previous assumptions about the book being tedious and confusing. The book provides a fraction of how the human psyche works, however, these ideas (“the wall”, consciousness/impulse vs desire, destination/journey) are ones that I will be consciously aware of in the future and that will stick with me through life.
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