Crime and Punishment by Fydor Dostoyevsky
Review by: Ayanna A. Gray

Crime and Punishment takes place in 19th century Russia and is about the crime, recklessness and poverty of the town of St. Petersburg.

The main character of the book, Raskolinikov is a troubled young man that wants to find the deeper meaning of life, seems to not remember who God really is, and grows more and more impatient with pettiness. His mother and his sister, Avidotia are worried about his disposition and his attitudes. His friend Razumikhin is getting tired of Raskolnikov’s flippancy and really wants to help. He also has a secret crush on Avidotia.

In the beginning, Raskolnikov is apparently planning something, but we don’t know what it is. Farther on, he commits a murder and becomes guilty and frenzied as he tries to cover up his crime and keep his worried mother and friends at bay. Then some people become suspicious of him and he tries to hide it. He meets a girl that falls in love with him, and he trusts her with his secret. She convinces him to turn himself in eventually, and he realizes he loved her all along.

Doskoyevsky wrote Crime and Punishment in Russian, so it’s translated. The translator decided to keep some of the Russian terms in it. For example, one person has a lot of different names. Raskolnikov’s real name is Rodion, but he is called Raskolikov, Rodion Ramnych, and Rodia, the name his mother calls him. They’re like nicknames, and they are usually used when a person is talking.

The most exciting point in the book for me was after Raskolnikov had committed the murder and people were beginning to get suspicious of him, and he tries his best to throw them off. Afterwards, he’s accused, and he tires to think it over on whether he should run away or turn himself in.