Resurrection of Lazarus in Crime and Punishment In Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Raskalnikov undergoes a period of extreme psychological upheaval. By comparing this death and rebirth of Raskalnikov's psyche to the story of the resurrection of Lazarus, Dostoevsky emphasizes not only the gravity of his crimes, but also the importance of acceptance of guilt. From the moment when Raskalnikov murders the old woman, his personality begins to change drastically. Dostoevsky challenges the reader to understand the madness which ensues by first demonstrating that the ideas and convictions to which Raskalnikov clung died along with the women. While the reader struggles with this realization, Dostoevsky incorporates the Biblical legend of Lazarus as a symbolic mirror for Raskalnikov's mind. By connecting the two, the reader encounters the foreshadowing of a rebirth of morals and beliefs, though what form this may assume remains cryptic. As references to Lazarus continue to occur, the feeling of parallelism increases in intensity. Just as Raskalnikov slowly struggled through madness, Lazarus lay dying of a terrible disease. When Lazarus eventually dies, Raskalnikov mimes this by teetering on the edge of insanity, the death of the mind. Eventually Sonya begins to pull Raskalnikov back to reality by relieving a portion of his guilt. As his Christ figure, she accomplishes this by providing the moral and spiritual sturdiness which Raskalnikov lost after his debasement during the murders. Sonya affects him not by active manipulation, but via her basic character, just as Christ personified his beliefs through the manner in which he lived his life. No matter what Raskalnikov says or does to her, she accepts it and looks to God to forgive him, just as Jesus does in the Bible. This eventually convinces Raskalnikov that what he did was in fact a crime and that he must repent for it and"seek atonement". Through this realization, Raskalnikov decides he must redeem himself not only in the eyes of the law, but in the eye of God as well. By foreswearing his old philosophy and accepting his guilt, Raskalnikov again mirrors Lazarus's acceptance of Jesus as his savior. While Lazarus accepts his new life through his rebirth, Raskalnikov acknowledges his guilt and therefore allows his mind to begin life anew.
Abrams chose to create his movie helped to convey the overall theme. The most obvious technical choice that the director made was the color pallette his used throughout the entire movie. Abrams kept the colors mostly muted and somber, except for the explosions. This kept the film on the more serious side. If he chose to use brighter colors and had the characters wear more flamboyant clothes, the film would take on a completely different tone. It may be seen as more campy or directed towards a younger audience. Darkness and darker tones also typically convey a feeling of mystery, which goes along with the theme of hidden secrets. Abrams, in order to keep the audience in suspense and further the secrets he chose to hide information till the end. For example, he didn’t fully expose the monster till the very end of the movie. He gave little glimpses, providing suggestible minds with the horrors of what this thing was and what it looked like, but never allowing it to be shown. The other major theme, of challenging authority, is conveyed at first through his choice of having the main characters mostly be adolescents. Their age group as the connotation of rebellion, especially since they are on the brink of becoming teenagers. He also wrote the military to come off as being total jerks, which made the audience root against them. If they were portrayed as being heroes, or at the least honorable, the
In other words, Lawrence Hill did not hesitate to show the extreme parts of slavery, as he mentioned in his interview at our class, “it easy to show a naked baby or a women killing her baby in a novel, but it would not be as easy to show so on a TV show”. He used his novel to spotlight on the middle passage as an unforgivable historical event. According to Marisa Zhuño, “The authentic portrayal of life as a slave, from capture to eventual freedom, creates a dynamic backdrop for the character-driven novel; however, his attention to detail does not derail the effect of the novel” (Zhuño). Which means that the real depiction of life as a slave, from catch to inevitable opportunity, makes an effective scenery for the characters. Although Hill has described the middle passage as bloody scene, but that did not affect the purpose of the novel. Moreover, Marisa Zhuño certifies the correctness of Hill’s historical descriptions of the middle passage in his novel, after examining huge numbers of the particular insights about slavery in the novel. In addition to my own investigation about both authors, it seems that Hills research about this historical event gets to be right. Based on the book Crossing for James Walvin:
...eyes and feel sorry for him as well as all the black community suffering from segregation “I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell…” (King 314).
Their argument was that the 13th and 14th amendment had already given African American males the same amount of authority that women had. Therefore, in their opinion, giving black males the right to vote would make them superior over females and only further their oppression. Feminists also brought up the argument that giving females the right to vote would bring a new element into American politics. Males had always had the right to vote, therefore adding the black males’ vote wouldn’t bring in any new or beneficial
Surprisingly when he confesses she does not react with fear or judgement but her reaction is strangely compassionate. She “[flings] herself on his neck and [holds] him tightly in her arms” (424) and he is shocked. The mercy that she shows him is God-like. Raskolnikov's exclamation "I killed myself, not the old crone!"(430) reestablishes the concept of death through sin and exemplifies the idea that he feels he has lost his life and his soul through his sin, which is a religious ideal. Sonya answers him saying "Accept suffering and redeem yourself by it." In this scene Sonya becomes, more clearly than before, a Christ-figure for Raskolnikov. He comes to her seeking salvation. Rodya tells her, "That's why I came, because I'm wicked."(428) He comes to her for help and seeking to shift his burden onto her. Jesus came to save sinners, by taking upon himself the burdens of mankind. Her incomprehensible...
However, it soon emerges that he, despite the physical nature of his situation, has a very active mind. To reveal whether he is of a special "breed" of humans, he finds it necessary to kill, and the unfortunate subjects of his experiment are an old pawnbroker and her sister. After the murders, Raskolnikov is subject to a series of mental and emotional changes, eventually leading to his confession and, later, his arrest, trial and eight-year prison sentence.
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment begins with Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov living in poverty and isolation in St. Petersburg. The reader soon learns that he was, until somewhat recently, a successful student at the local university. His character at that point was not uncommon. However, the environment of the grim and individualistic city eventually encourages Raskolnikov’s undeveloped detachment and sense of superiority to its current state of desperation. This state is worsening when Raskolnikov visits an old pawnbroker to sell a watch. During the visit, the reader slowly realizes that Raskolnikov plans to murder the woman with his superiority as a justification. After the Raskolnikov commits the murder, the novel deeply explores his psychology, yet it also touches on countless other topics including nihilism, the idea of a “superman,” and the value of human life. In this way, the greatness of Crime and Punishment comes not just from its examination of the main topic of the psychology of isolation and murder, but the variety topics which naturally arise in the discussion.
In his book Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky explores the paths of two men, Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov. These two men encompass many similar problems and obstacles throughout their lives. Both commit murders and are faced with the long and mentally excruciating journey of seeking redemption. They also share many characteristics of their personalities. The reason that the outcomes of their lives are so drastically different is due to the fact that they have completely different perspectives on life.
Du Bois, W.E.B. “Of the Meaning of Progress.'; Ways of Reading. Ed. David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky. Bedford/St. Martin’s: New York, Boston, 1999. Pg 224-231.
Marx believed that economic processes are of great importance in society, such as the harnessing of natural resources, producing goods, developing new technologies and establishing a division of labour in the workforce. These are important because in order for these things to happen, people in society have to come together. Therefore they enter into social class relationships.
A hypothesis on a hyperbole is the best description one can render onto this piece by Gloria Steinem. The ideas present in the essay “If Men could menstruate” are so drastic and ridiculous, that it demands a second reading. These same ridiculous thoughts on this unique subject matter are generally quaint but for the greater part they evoke thought on the reality of society. Boarders, languages and oceans separate the planet physically; class distinctions, religion, color and gender separate it mentally. Man in all his glory cannot justify or gratify himself unless some other party recognizes a superior, therefor; it obviously becomes imperative for men to be seen by other as superiors. Based on this reasoning it is safe to imply that distinctions are a man made concepts that are used to promote his superiority be it in class, color and gender. Gloria Steinem uniquely presented a true and accurate stance on gender distinction based on the fact that any and almost every thing has been used to promote male superiority and female inferiority.
The neo-security complex theory revolves around an attempt to expand the possibilities of what constitutes a security threat by conceptualizing it as meaning solely a threat to one’s physical existence. While recognizing that there are many threats and vulnerabilities that arise both within and outside military issues, Buzan, Waever, and de Wilde argue that including all such events would ultimately prove the traditionalists’ critique that expanding security beyond military issues inevitably leads to a lack of coherence. The way out of this conceptual morass is to distinguish between political issues and construct security as pertaining to “existential threats to a referent object by a securitizing actor who thereby generates endorsement of emergency measures beyond rules that would otherwise bind.”
The enlightenment made it popular for the study of truth to be rooted in reality and less dependent on interaction. This argument is the most prevalent throughout the piece. Vico claims that the society he lives in parallels “Pre-Socratic” times and school of thought. In this grand defense of eloquence, Vico uses different Greek and Roman political figures as exemplars of great speakers as verification of the greatness of proper eloquence. He concludes his argument with a plea to future civil servants that asks them to learn multiple disciplines in order to develop common
In his novel Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky uses Raskolnikov as a vessel for several different philosophies that were particularly prominent at the time in order to obliquely express his opinions concerning those schools of thought. Raskolnikov begins his journey in Crime and Punishment with a nihilistic worldview and eventually transitions to a more optimistic one strongly resembling Christian existentialism, the philosophy Dostoevsky preferred, although it could be argued that it is not a complete conversion. Nonetheless, by the end of his journey Raskolnikov has undergone a fundamental shift in character. This transformation is due in large part to the influence other characters have on him, particularly Sonia. Raskolnikov’s relationship with Sonia plays a significant role in furthering his character development and shaping the philosophical themes of the novel.
Interviewing two teachers on their opinions regarding the positive and negative aspects of a teaching role allowed me to get an understanding of their perspective. One of the teachers whom I interviewed was Mr. Gonzales a Spanish teacher for nine years. He first served the U.S. Army until he retired and decided to become a teacher. Although, he knew that teachers are not paid enough and are taken for granted, he only cared about making a difference in a child’s life. Mr. Gonzales states that his goals as an educator is to, “reach all my students no matter their diversity, ethnicity, and learning style in order to help them succeed” (H. Gonzalez, personal communication, October 26, 2015).