Socially Constructed Reality and Meaning in Notes from Underground Essa

Socially Constructed Reality and Meaning in Notes from UndergroundJust as the hands in M.C. Eschers Drawing Hands both create and argon createdby each other, the identity of man and society are mutually interdependent. According tothe good example described in The blessed Canopy, Peter Berger believes that man externalizesor creates a social humans that is in turn objectified, or accepted by him as real. Thissociological model creates a useful framework for understanding the narrators rejectionof ultimate reality or truth in Fyodor Dostoevskys Notes from Underground. The realityin which the narrator tries to live in part II, and the reality that he rejects in part I, areboth created and, as such, are ultimately meaningless. The underground mans refusal toobjectify social reality causes a feeling of meaninglessness and raises a fundawork forcetalquestion of purpose that confronts people of all dispositions.Bergers theory is based on a dialectical relationship between man and socie ty. Toexplain his theory he defines three terms. Externalization is the ongoing release ofhuman being into the world. Objectivation, the attainment by the products of this activityof a reality that confronts its original producers as a facticity external to and other thanthemselves. Internalization is the reappropriation by men of this same reality,transforming into structures of the subjective consciousness, (Berger 4). He believes thatsociety is a wholly human invention created by mans tendency to externalize. Thiscreated entity is then objectified by man, braggart(a) society and its features the appearance oftrue reality. His newly created reality then acts upon and shapes man throughinternalization. Man, his identity... ...fulfills his societal roles. Chernyshevskys utilitarian is happywhen individual needs are met. The man of consciousness can be happy, even if hishappiness comes from the rejection of happiness altogether. There is no superiorhappiness there is no superior event of fulfillment. The individual achieves these ends byacting individually. No hand can avoid drawing, and man finds completeness when hefulfills the purpose that he has drawn for himself.Works CitedBerger, Peter L. The Sacred Canopy Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion.New York Anchor Books, 1990.Escher, M.C. Drawing Hands. Cover of Norton edition of Notes from Underground.Katz, Michael R., ed. Notes from Underground. New York W.W. Norton & Company,2001.Chernyshevsky, Nikolai. What Is to Be Done? Katz 104-123.Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes from Underground. Katz 3-91