Notes from Underground Study Guide

1. The narrator describes himself as:

• not spiteful
• spiteful
• intelligent
• all of the above

2. The narrator bemoans the fact that he could not become:

• an intellectual
• a father
• a soldier
• an insect

3. Consciousness is primarily described as:

• a sixth sense
• a blessing from God
• a disease
• what makes us human

4. The primary literary importance of the novel lies in its:

• opposition to Communist revolutionaries
• use of new writing techniques to circumvent linguistic conventions
• attack on philosophical ideas through the use of a fictional character's psychology
• elevation of Russian culture in opposition to the West

5. Of the following, which is not a metaphor for a man of action, a man with consciousness, or the laws of nature:

• bear
• bull
• wall
• mouse

6. The Underground Man has never gotten which of the following:

• a salary
• a toothache
• an inheritance
• a slap in the face

7. Which of the following does not contribute to making moans more annoying:

• European civilization
• education
• religious belief
• progress

8. Which of these is not directly related to the laws of nature in the novel:

• two times two
• a wall
• impossibility
• heavy industry

9. The Underground Man suggests that he would have been much happier in life had he been any of the following except:

• a sluggard
• a doctor
• a wine connoisseur
• a glutton

10. Liza is

• a prostitute
• a waitress
• the Underground Man's mother
• an abstract idealization of the perfect woman