The underground man and Meursault, from The Stranger, have a lot more in common than I initially thought. While reading Notes from the Underground I realized that the underground man was a very intellectual man. However, throughout the whole book I wondered what caused him to be incapable of maintaining any relationships with the outside world. During our lecture in class we connected the narrator to the main character in The Stranger, Meursault. The two are very similar; they are both able to live with clarity due to their intellect. In Notes form the underground, the narrator seems to have a very high IQ, setting him on a different intellect level than the rest of society. This ultimately leads him to be socially awkward and have difficulty connecting with those around him.
The underground man always seems to contradict himself along with his actions. The reason behind his contradictions are due to the fact that he views everything with clarity. This causes the underground man to see both sides to a situation. Therefore, he can not pick a situation and is unable to accomplish anything and become successful. When he mentioned that only fools were successful I imagined that the underground man was just jealous since he has been stuck in the undergrounds for so long, but he is the one capable of seeing with clarity, making him a greater intellectual being than those considered "successful".
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