Describe the dinner party the Underground Man has with his old schoolmates. How does it
all turn out?
First of all, the Underground Man was not even invited to the dinner party but he invited himself
when he was listening to his old schoolmates planning it. He had not seen most of these guys in
years yet he described how they acted when they were all young as if they hadn't changed at all.
When he gets to the dinner he realizes that he is the only one who showed up “on time”. He
waited until everyone else showed up an hour later than the time he was told. They all blamed
Simonov for not telling him the dinner was pushed back an hour but then they all just dismissed
the subject even though the Underground Man was very upset with him. I think he felt
unimportant to all of them because of this moment.
Even though the dinner was in honor of Zverkov, who was leaving because of his new
position in the military. The Underground Man was initially the center of attention since
everyone wanted to know what he had been up to. During the interrogation, it seems like he was
feeling insecure and attacked by his old classmate’s questions. The one question that stood out to
me was when they asked him about his salary and he actually told them. During the whole
dinner, the Underground Man was agitated and defensive and kept saying that he was going to
leave but never did. He even tried to make a speech for Zverkov but he failed and rather insulted
the man. Then, all of the guys went to the sofa and did not invite him. Overall, he never fit in and
did not seem to want to fit in with his old classmates.