The Fight Against Crime and PunishmentReading this book makes you sick because from start to finish you watch psychological forces eat away at the thoughts and actions of their victim, eventually leading him to confess to the heinous crime he committed. The story is essentially the struggle between Raskolnikov's Napoleon-übermensch theory and his conscience which makes him confess his crime. Dostoyevsky's genius lies in describing Raskolnikov's difficulties in his thoughts and actions. His thoughts become more and more disjointed and desperate and his actions show that he increasingly needs to escape the uncertainty of being convicted, to talk about the crime, to confess to it, and to suffer for his crime. . It is even humorous at times to see how Raskolnikov sometimes gets lost in his failed but undiscovered crime. Here, after the police call about a routine visit: “But this is unheard of!” I never had anything to do with the police! And why should this only happen today? he thought, tormented by indecision. “Oh, Lord, let it at least be over soon!” He could almost have knelt and prayed, but he laughed at his own impulse; he must put his trust in himself and not in prayer. He began to dress hastily. “If I’m done, I’m done!” Everything is one. . .I'm going to put on the sock!' He suddenly thought, "there will be even more dirt and all the stains will disappear." But as soon as he put it on, he dragged it away with horror and disgust. Porfiry is a master of the psychological forces that he knows will slowly and steadily bring down Raskolnikov. He trusts that laws are not only handed down to us, but that they define human nature and must be respected. It seems to be the main...... middle of paper ...... it is not only an existential battlefield where individual desires and interests fight without any real underlying moral structure, but that there is hope for a social fiber, moral and belief in eternal things. This is a book worthy of the 20th century, with a positive touch, still relevant today. This book was also Russian through and through. You get a good overview of an interesting period in Russian history (after the liberation of the serfs) and the philosophy and thought that was going on at the time. St. Petersburg is a very unique city and Russian culture is unique. This book captures a piece of both. "All I can say is that it almost killed me. It was like having a disease." -- Robert Louis Stevenson on reading Crime and Punishment. Works cited: Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Crime and punishment. Trans. Constance Garnett. New York: modern library, 1950.