Notes from Underground

The reader knows that he has not been active in society for 20 years, having lived underground for the past two decades, but he has a plethora of opinions on interpersonal relationships and human morality. These opinions do not come out of nowhere, as he proves that he once dealt with coworkers, acquaintances, and others before reaching his breaking point and retreating into the underground. 

Part 2 begins with the poem "Apropos of Wet Snow," then the narrative is entirely a flashback from that point forward:

At that time I was only twenty-four years old. Even then my life was gloomy, disordered, and solitary 

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He connects his former life to the one he's chosen for himself, admitting that he is still gloomy and disordered despite his years underground. His personality has not changed in the past decades, but it is important for the reader to see his past in order to understand the experiences that led him to his ideas.

Interestingly, the flashback takes up the entirety of Part 2 instead of coming at the beginning of the novella or being interspersed with the philosophy. The flashback being segmented and occurring after the rest of the novella shows The Underground Man's priorities. He wants his thoughts on human nature and other topics to exist independently of his personal experiences, even going so far as to distance himself from the thoughts (though not for long: he always circles back to complimenting his own intelligence). The placement of the extended flashback in Part 2 makes it seem like an afterthought, and as such, puts much less importance on the narrative portion of the story than on the philosophical part.