Book review

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

I finally, finally finished this book! I have been in such a reading slump, partly because this novel was boring yet insightful which is why I refused to quit reading it. I am glad I got to the end because the analysis was interesting.



The story is about a poor guy who kills a pawn-broker thinking his actions are above law and justified because the pawnbroker was a "horrible" person. Throughout the book, his attempts to mask his conscience and act of crime eventually unfold. He's pretty much in a feverish state and delusion for a good majority and although he can conceal his true thoughts and feelings from investigators and a fellow friend/scholar, you see his break down with the arrival of his mother and sister, and his love for Sonya.

It shows that the protagonist is actually quite ordinary, and not "extraordinary (which he tried to prove by acting above the law)". Also (maybe I completely misinterpreted this, but oh well), I believe that his surrounding was able to help him cling to life and not kill himself from feeling overwhelmed and constantly haunted by his actions. At first he was quite stubborn, but after meeting Sonya, having his mother and sister in town, and his good friend support him, I think was essentially what led him to confessing and accepting his punishment. Unlike the protagonist, another character named Svidrigailov (aside from his overall twisted demeanor) was also under similar predicaments but he ended up taking his own life because Dunya did not love him back and he was isolated.
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Anyways, the real VIPs in this book were Sonya and Razumikhin. They really stuck by him and supported him even when they weren't in very good situations themselves. Razumikhin was helpful the entire time the protagonist was in his feverish state and perhaps it was his innocence that shed him in such a good light, but he believed in the protagonist wholeheartedly. He took care of the protagonist even when ungratefulness and anger was reciprocated. Sonya was also a truly selfless person. She took care of her family and sacrificed a lot of herself for them. Her devotion and love for the protagonist was above and beyond.