Crime and Punishment Thought Piece #1

     "Well, and what if I'm mistaken?" [Raskolnikov] suddenly found himself exclaiming. 'What if man-- the whole human race in general, I mean-- isn't really a villain at all? If that's true, it means that all the rest is just a load of superstition, just a lot of fears that have been put into people's heads, and there are no limits, and that's how it's meant to be!..." (34).
    Within the first few pages of Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky has already let his readers in on the mental perversions and spineless justifications of Raskolnikov. In this passage, my interest was quickly peaked when Dostoyevsky takes the quiet thoughts of Raskolnikov and suddenly rockets them to an entire new set of ethics. Here, Raskolnikov is characterized as ungrounded and dillusioned-- both descriptions intended to describe the mental state of his crime. His quick tangent of thoughts is means of self-justifying his crime, but most importantly, it attests to the rabid guilt of the human mind.
    Realistically, the main conflict throughout the novel is Raskolnikov's struggle with this rabid guilt. He is quick to compromise truth and logical reasoning just to satiate his ravenous conscience. As evidenced in the quote, Raskolnikov uses his own presumptions about the motives of mankind to mold an entire new system of thought and happily concludes by saying that his presumption is "how it's meant to be!" (34). Raskolnikov's circular reasoning is extremely vivid in this passage as Dostoyevsky uses his insanity to preface his reasoning throughout the rest of the book.
    Coincidentally, I find that this insanity-stricken compromise of "truth" is ever so rampant in today's culture as well. With the dynamic changing of our society, all sorts of ideas and beliefs are melded into whatever justifies an individual's conscience. Just as Raskolnikov is, people are trapped in their nebulous minds, and their reasoning is rendered obsolete. Truth is no longer constant, and bewilderment is ever-present.  
  

Test Blog.

"Now that she's back from that soul vacation
Tracing her way through the constellation, hey
She checks out Mozart while she does Tae-Bo
Reminds me that there's room to grow, hey
Now that she's back in the atmosphere
I'm afraid that she might think of me as
Plain ol' Jane told a story about a man
Who was too afraid to fly so he never did land
But tell me, did the wind sweep you off your feet?
Did you finally get the chance
To dance along the light of day
And head back to the Milky Way?
And tell me, did Venus blow your mind?
Was it everything you wanted to find?
And then you missed me
While you were looking for yourself out there."
-Drops of Jupiter by Train