For my next reading, I have decided to tackle Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. After, finishing the brilliant and hilarious war novel Catch 22, I wanted to read something with complexity and meaning. What I am attempting to "read for" through this book is the Thematic register. I hope through this book it will open myself up into a literal window I haven't noticed before. . It wasn't that Catch 22 didn't have any complexly because it did, but Crime and Punishment will require more thinking. , Crime and Punishment is about Raskiolinikov, who is a desperate student who commits a random murder and has no regrets. He believes himself to be great like Napoleon for acting beyond others with purpose, but he is trapped in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a police investigator. His only saving grace is Sonya, a downtrodden prostitute, who can offer him his only chance at redemption. From the description Crime and Punishment will be a long endeavor which will challenge me to open my mind and think. The opening chapter of the novel makes me believe this book will be filled with meanings of depression and sadness with a little spice of crazy. Reading through the second chapter has really made me submissive to the text while also making me resistant. |
"I plan to attempt a thing like this, yet I allow that kind of rubbish to scare me!' he thought with a strange smile. 'Hm...yes...Everything lies in a man's hands, and if he lets it all slip past his nose it's purely out of cowardice...that's an axiom.p.6 |
There is a lot to take in from the text. What I believe Raskolinikov is referring to is the crime is going to commit. Usually people think ugly words involved with crime, but Raskolinikov thinks differently. He doesn't believe doing this crime which i believe is murder isn't a big deal. This is where my readerly role changes from a summative reader to a resistant reader. Murder is unforgivable the fact the narrator is arguing about this concept wants me to stop reading, but I want to discover more of the text. To connect to the topic of murder, Raskolinkov meets someone on the street that tells him his life story, who sees how horrible the world is.
"What i mean, sir, is when it's completely hopeless, when you know beforehand that nothing will come of it... "But why go to him?" Raskolnikov added "But if there is no on, if there is nowhere to go? I mean everyone must have at least somewhere he can go! p.18 |
The text wants the reader to submit to the text and become summative. Reading in between the line the reader can see that it about showing more reasons by the narrator believes murder is okay option. In this case the speaker is revealing a depressing life. I usually stay away from misery reads because they just bring down my mood down However, this text is interesting to read because the overall themes of life. The most interesting part is that the narrator is speaking directly to the audience.
"young man, ' he went on, straightening up. 'In your features i seem to read a certain unhappiness. i saw it as soon as you came in, and that's why i lost no time in appealing to you. For communicating to you the story of my life, i seek to avoid exposing myself to the most grotesque ridicule in the eyes... p.20 |
This passage is reveling his life story to both the reader and Raskolnikov. Hoping to change the minds of both to see that his story might have an impact. I feel the same about Raskolnikov that is mentally insane, who is unchanged. This text is very complex something I will thoroughly explore in more detail in future blog posts.