Reading Novels Like A Professor: Chapter 17 – Improbabilities: Foundlings and Magi,...

Reading Novels Like A Professor: Chapter 17 – Improbabilities: Foundlings and Magi,...: Part 1: What opportunities did your novel present to you to live vicariously through the characters? Are there characters you do not relate ...

Novels are only as good as the reader makes them out to be. If the reader seems uninterested, then the novel will most likely not be in their “top ten” list. Although if the novel has the reader intrigued and closely following along, then of course it will for sure be a favorite of the reader. Although a lot of the success of a novel is left up to the reader’s interpretation of it, the success of a novel largely depends on whether or not the reader can relate to, and live through it. In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel, Crime and Punishment, The reader is able to at least somewhat relate to its characters and therefore can live through their lives. Raskolnikov is surprisingly very relatable to the reader. The character is very prideful, like many people in reality, and is being internally troubled due to his horrific actions. Now the reader might have never killed anyone, but certainly there has been a time where the reader has felt very guilty about something they have done, and feel like they need to be punished. Even though the circumstances are not precise, Dostoevsky still makes it a priority to place ordinary people in the story. There is not really a certain character that the reader is not able to relate if. Although the horrific character of Peter Luzhin is overly prideful and ridiculously materialistic, the reader can still relate to those attributes. The novel allows the readers emotions to be troubled as well as the characters’. In the story Raskolnikov is being internally tormented for his awful and murderous actions. The reader must invest time to relate and care for the character, therefore allowing the reader’s heart to be touched as well. By the end of the story, the reader cares deeply for Raskolnikov and the fact that he is taking responsibility for his own actions. This is what makes Crime and Punishment so fantastic, the fact that anyone can relate to the main character, as well as not relate to him at all.

-Conner Furr