Like I’m sure many others did, I found the first twenty-seven pages of Crime and Punishment ridiculously hard to get through. It took me about two hours in total, not because I didn’t understand it, but because it was rather dull. Not to offend anyone who may have enjoyed the beginning (Ms. Tramantano) but I’m the kind of person who enjoys a book with a lot of dialogue. The intricate details of Crime and Punishment do not interest me in the slightest.
In all honesty, I find the beginning of the book difficult to blog about. I feel as if I don’t have that much to say. One of the first things that I thought about Raskolnikov was that he was depressed. “He had entirely given up attending to his daily affairs and did not want to attend to them.” Being as how I did two essays this past year on depression, I can rightly inform you that a symptom of depression is loss of interests once enjoyed. I thought that might play out to be a big part of the storyline. Also, I hated not knowing Raskolnikov’s name until page seven. I like being able to associate a face with a name. Not being able to do so made me enjoy the book even less.
I also don’t understand why Raskolnikov wants to kill Alyona Ivanova. What exactly did she do to make him want to kill her? She didn’t seem like a mean person, just a business woman. Did anyone catch the real reason Raskolnikov wanted to kill the pawn broker? Was there a reason to catch? If so, please enlighten me.
Lastly, as others have mentioned, Marmeladov was an unnecessary character in my eyes. We learned more about his life than we did about Raskolnikov’s. I felt like his life’s story was irrelevant to the plot.
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I'm so glad I'm not the only one that felt that the beginning of the book is hard to blog about. We just don't learn anything about Raskolnikov. He's such a hard character to penetrate, and I think that made it harder for me to enjoy the book.
ReplyDeleteI didn't understand his urge to kill Alyona Ivanova either. All I understood was that he was killing her because he wanted her money. Raskolnikov tried convincing himself that by killing her, he'll give her money to people who need it. He thought that since it would benefit "thousands", his crime wouldn't really matter.
However, as you read on, you realize that his logic was idiotic, and not at all thought out.
I had high expectations for this book. I'm so disappointed with how it actually turned out, and I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels this way.