Cowards. Slaves. These are two names that the narrator in Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground calls humans, specifically decent men. He comes to this realization because, as he phrases it, he is developed and intellectually superior. While all his peers think he is foolish, he has hit upon a truth most only guess at. Mankind is trapped in a system, and they are either too scared to attempt leaving or are not capable of doing so, whether they are aware of their state or not, which is evident in the narrator’s life. The narrator forms the conclusion of man’s condition after considering his workplace., observing how they perform the same routine every day. He believes that, “Every decent man of our time is and must be a coward and a slave. That is his normal condition.” (44). How is a man decent if he is a coward and slave? The narrator is bringing up the point that any normal, good man is still following the path laid out for him by society and not challenging it. The system is how ou...