“And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (John 5:210, English Standard Version) Fyodor Dostoevsky sought to portray these ideals using Prince Myshkin and Alyosha in his great novels The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov. However, because Prince Myshkin and Alyosha portray the same characteristics by no means makes them identical. Both characters were in isolation prior to the initial plot of the books, but for different reasons. Myshkin was in a sanatorium before his book's plot picks up, while Alyosha willingly leaves the chaos of the outside world to spiritually enrich himself. The main plot of both books hinge around different conflicts, and one may argue that The Idiot is less complex than The Brothers Karamazov, since its plot is centered around love, whereas the latter book's plot concerns a murder. Alyosha is more openly spiritual than Myshkin. Alyosha also understands the world better than Myshkin does; Myshkin tends to be more naïve, even though he probably had experienced the greed, vanity, lust, and general malice of society. The characters are similar in other ways, though. Like their creator, Dostoevsky, both Myshkin and Alyosha have epileptic fits in tense circumstances; Myshkin when Rogozhin tries to stab him, and Alyosha when under verbal abuse from his father. In both novels, Dostoevsky used the characters of Alyosha and Prince Myshkin to personify his ideal spiritual and Christlike man, so pure and good that they are pained by the evil they see in the world around them.
One of England’s greatest literary figures, William Shakespeare, expressed the truth about coveting knowledge by saying that “ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven” (William Shakespeare Quotes). One must assume that Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451, learned from this. Bradbury’s novel shares a similar portrayal towards coveting knowledge. In the novel the protagonist realizes that he is living in a world where knowledge is lost. People abide by rules and restrictions given to them by the government. There is nothing in this society to make people think about how valuable knowledge is, except for books. The protagonist is a fireman whose job is to seek out books and destroy the contents. The mass population believes that books are a waste of time and useless. The protagonist also believes this until a change of heart leads to a journey of identity and curiosity. Bradbury believes that this type of world will eventually turn into our own. Clearly, Ray Bradbury’s outlook for the future of man is grim because he represses intellectual endeavor, lacks critical thinking, and becomes destructive.
Monsters under the bed, drowning, and property damage are topics many people have nightmares about; nightmares about a dystopian future, on the other hand, are less common. Despite this, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and George Orwell’s 1984 display a nightmarish vision about a dystopian society in the near future. Fahrenheit 451 tells of Guy Montag’s experience in a society where books have become illegal and the population has become addicted to television. Meanwhile, 1984 deals with Winston Smith’s affairs in Oceania, a state controlled by the totalitarian regime known as the Party. This regime is supposedly headed by a man named Big Brother. By examining the dehumanized settings, as well as the themes of individuality and manipulation, it becomes clear that novels successfully warn of a nightmarish future.
Like the personalities of "The Brothers Karamazov", the characters of any well-written piece become extremely significant to the reader. In that case, it becomes vital for the reader to know the fates of these characters, who are known almost intimately, and their destinies[1] are highly anticipated. In "The Brothers Karamazov", the reader wants to know, for example, if Ivan will ever answer his questions, how Alyosha will lead his life, and if Dmitri will be convicted for a crime he didn't commit. By having these fates determined through cognitive events, these occurrences become some of the most memorable of Dostoevsky's novel, which itself becomes psychoanalogical. Thus, "The Brothers Karamazov" has become one of the greatest novels ever written and a true psychological masterpiece.
“There is a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line” (“Oscar Levant Quotes”).
First, Dostoevsky gives the reader the character, Raskolnokov. He is the main character, whom Fyodor uses to show two sides of people their admirable side and their disgusting side. He loves Raskolnokov, which is why Fyodor uses Raskolnokov’s point of view throughout the whole novel. Personally, Fyodor dislikes some of his qualities but understands that all people are plagued with some bad traits, and that Raskolnokv is trying to make emends for some of his wrong doings, i.e. the murder of the pawnbroker and her sister. He knows that what he did was wrong and is willing to suffer for his crime, and he does throughout the whole book with his constant depression. Dostoesky believes in punishment for your crimes, this is why he shows Raskolnokov suffering through most of the novel, to show his great love for penance. Dostoevsky likes the kind giving nature of people; this is why he portrays the main character as a kind, gentle, and giving, person. Often, Raskolnokov thinks only of others benefits such as when he helped Katerina by giving her all his money for Marmelodov, as well as his caring about what happens to his sister with her marriage to Luzhin. Raskolnokov hates Luzhin’s arrogant and pompous attitude, which reflects Dostoevsky’s animosity of the same qualities in people in the real world.
“Brave New World,” is a novel written by Aldous Huxley where he explains that everything is based on a futuristic science which he claimed sprang forth from him because of his experience as “an ordered universe in a world of plan less incoherence” (River 4 1974). People seem to care more about temporal things rather than emotions. Technology also seems to be the most important aspect and everyone is affected by it in one way or another, whether if it is negative or positive. This does not necessarily mean that everyone is fully happy with technology because in a way they are all slaves to it. Another thing discussed in the novel is the lack of freedom. Due to a lot of technological development there exists this division in between people even before their birth that their fate has already been decided where subsist these casts such as Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas e.t.c. They are pushed away from freedom of choice and forced to live in a bubble of their own.
Brave New World, a novel by Aldous Huxley was written at a tine in history when war had ravaged much of the nation, Depression was blanketing society, and people’s wills were being put to the test. Science had become an overwhelming force for better or for worse. People had witnessed science saving and preventing millions of lives with vaccinations and such, but on the contrary, had also witnessed it kill with horrifying “factory-like” efficiency in WW I (the age of machine guns and chemical warfare). Brave New World is not intended to be a happy book, it is more Huxley’s way of describing what he believes is coming to us. He is basically saying, “This is our future”. Huxley’s writings are known for dealing with conflicts between the interest of the individual and the interests of society. Brave New World addresses this conflict in a fictional future (approximately 500 years into the future) in which free will and individuality have been sacrificed to achieve complete social stability.
There were many differences in the characters' relationships with each other. For instance, Heather and Melinda’s connection were very different from book to film.
...ce and although they seem similar at the beginning of the drama, they are actually very similar beings by the end.
Within the tortured mind of a young Russian university student, an epic battle rages between two opposite ideologies - the conservative Christianity characteristic of the time, and a new modernist humanism gaining prevalence in academia. Fyodor Dostoevsky in the novel Crime and Punishment uses this conflict to illustrate why the coldly rational thought that is the ideal of humanism represses our essential emotions and robs us of all that is human. He uses the changes in Raskolnikov's mental state to provide a human example of modernism's effect on man, placing emphasis upon the student's quest for forgiveness and the effect of repressed emotion.
The book, Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley, is a radical story that is interpreted as a potential caution to us, society, if we keep making poor life choices. In the novel, Huxley depicts a culture where people are programmed to live forever and forced to think that sex and drugs are. For them, the idea of having a family with a mother and a father is absolutely repulsive to think about. Even though some of Huxley’s thoughts are unrealistic, the meaning behind them can be seen today. Nowadays, the three ideas that are bringing us closer to the Brave New World true are the advancements in technology, an obsession to remain young, and the increasing rate of drug use.
Arthur Ashe once said, “From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however makes a life.” Such is the case in Nikolai Gogol’s short story The Overcoat. Gogol takes a man without a friend in the world and gives him a new overcoat. The new overcoat represents a new life and a new identity for the man and instantaneously he is much happier. The man, Akaky Akakievich, basis his “new life” upon the love that he gives to his overcoat, and what he feels it gives him in return. Before long, Akaky begins to care more about his beautiful coat and less about the people around him. Thus is the theme of the story. Often material things are more important in our lives than people, resulting in the emptiness of one’s heart and soul. One cannot be truly happy with his possessions alone. He needs more than that. He needs people his life, whom he can call friends.
Dmitri suffers through realizing his own evil before he is able to realize his goodness. Raskolnikov also suffers before he is able to redeem himself. But in both novels, women led the men into redemption; Grushenka helps Dmitri to be a better person and Sonya aids Raskolnikov on the pathway to a new life. It’s like Dostoevsky’s meaning is for one to be redeemed he must suffer first, and one can’t find redemption alone. In Crime and Punishment, Sonya is quiet, very religious, and devoted to her family.She sacrificed her body to prostitution for the sake of her family. She was initially scared of Raskolnikov and thought he was delirious, but she began to understand and care for him. Sonya wasn’t scared nor horrified of Raskolnikov’s crimes but she was concerned for his life and wanted him to confess. The difference between Sonya and Raskolnikov are their transgressions, raskolnikov sins for no one but himself while Sonya sins for the sake of others such as her family. In The Brothers Karamazov, Grushenka is Dmitri’s female counterpart, she was deserted by her old love and made herself financially independent so she can be free spirit. Her change starts when she begins to lure both fyodor and Dmitri who are father and son in the Karamazov family. She teases them and makes them become jealous of each other. when she realized the consequences of her
According to Raskolnikov’s theory in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”,there are two types of people that coexist in the world; the “Extraordinary” and the “Ordinary”. The ordinary men can be defined as “Men that have to live in submission, have no right to transgress the law, because they are ordinary.”(248). To the contrary “extraordinary” men are “Men that have a right to commit any crime and to transgress the law in any way , just because they are extraordinary”(248). Dostoevsky’s theory is evident through the characters of his novel. The main character, Raskolnikov, uses his theory of extraordinary men to justify contemplated murder. There is a sense of empowerment his character experiences with the ability to step over social boundaries. He is led to believe the killing of the pawnbroker is done for the perseverance of the greater good. It is ironic that character who is shown to be powerful in the early stages of the novel subsequently go on to show many weaknesses.
Then novel War and Peace was written by a famous Russian author Leo Tolstoy in 1865. The novel describes the war with Napoleon in which many countries were involved such as Russia, Austrian, Prussia, Spain, Sweden, and Britain. The novel mainly focuses on Russia. It reflects the different views and participation in the war of Russian aristocracy and peasants and also shows Tolstoy’s negative viewpoint on the war.