Comparison of power and freedom in The Invisible Man and Notes from UndergroundHumanity's quest for power is endless. Countless stories of greed, conflict and triumph arise from this shared ambition. Likewise, men universally seek freedom, a privilege that gives an individual the right to make independent decisions and express personal opinions. Exploring the connection between these two abstract concepts remains a topic of interest, especially in the works of Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man and Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground. There are two distinct definitions of "power": the first concerns socially defined power, generally represented by wealth, leadership, and authority over the lives of others. The other defines a power within oneself, in which an individual obtains a true picture of his human condition and his relationship with society. In The Invisible Man, the protagonist enters a black college, only to be expelled to New York. He then began a career with the Brotherhood, a group to promote civil rights and support blacks. The narrator of Notes From Underground outlines a series of recalled autobiographical events that form the backdrop to his philosophy regarding the human condition and freedom. Both the Invisible Man and the Underground Man, in their direct conflicts with power inequality, illustrate the universal human conflict in the pursuit of power. For each protagonist, a heightened awareness of their human condition begins a retreat underground to compile notes on the nature of power and freedom. Both conclude that freedom arises as a result of self-awareness and the ability to recognize and accept the powerlessness of the self amidst the oppressive power of society. The Invisible Man's first great encounter... half of the document... at .htmlBakhtin, Mikhail. Problems of Dostoevsky's poetics. Ed. and trans. Caryl Emerson. Intro. by Wayne C. Booth. Theory and history of literature. Minneapolis: U. of Minnesota Pr., 1984. Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes from the Underground: a new translation, backgrounds and sources, responses, criticisms. Norton critical edition. New York: Norton, 1989. Ellison, Ralph. The invisible man. New York: Vintage Books, 1952. Fabre, Michel. "In Precious by Ralph Ellison." Unpublished manuscript. 1996. Accessed 30 November 2001. http://www.igc.org/dissent/archive/Ellison/early.htmlHowe, Irving. "Review of: The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison" Pub. The nation. May 10, 1952. November 30, 1999. http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/howe-on-ellison.html.O'Meally, Robert, ed. New essays on the invisible man. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.