2024-05-11
Kendrick Lamar:
When are we gonna understand that we are put on Earth to love? That's all it's about. Everybody wants to figure out how complicated life is and break it down. I really think that it's going to keep going on. War will keep going on. Frustration will keep going on. Anger will keep going on. 'Til we finally go back down to the simplest word: love.
Growing up, I went through the public Catholic school system. Seeing how Dostoevsky is quite forward with his Christian morals in his writing, it's no surprise that Crime and Punishment was on the reading list for my English high school class. Okay, admittedly, I was not a very bright student so the fact that this was a deliberate choice was lost on me. Not until I read the book. What little I got out of Crime and Punishment in my first read of the book was all through the ending.
Back then I was a devout little Catholic so after reading Crime and Punishment, I was deeply moved by the ending. Raskolnikov finds redemption through Sonia and converts to Christianity. The image of Raskolnikov and Sonia exchanging crosses is forever burned into my mind. I thought it was so powerful that Raskolnikov went back to religion in the end. That his morals were finally straightened out and that he chose a better path for himself.
After re-reading the book over ten years later, I don't view the ending in that way anymore. One: I'm no longer religious so the moment no longer holds any awe for me. And, more importantly, two: I don't think Raskolnikov finds redemption through conversion. What comes to mind is a clip of an interview I stumbled upon on the Internet. In it, Kendrick Lamar talks about the importance of love.
It feels reductive to assign "love" as the main theme of Crime and Punishment. But it was one thing that came up on my mind throughout the entire novel.
Raskolnikov is surrounded by love from beginning to end. His friend Razumikhin (almost weirdly) never gives up on him, asserting himself into Raskolnikov's life to give him help when he needs it. His sister and mother are devoted to him and care for his well-being. Sonia deeply empathizes with him and sees the utmost good in him, even after learning that he is a killer. Despite it all, Raskolnikov rejects their love. He withdraws into himself and is obsessed over his own ego. Even when Raskolnikov is sent to the camps for murder, he still cannot get over himself. He toils over the fact that he is not, by his own definition, an extraordinary person.
The only thing that snaps him out of this is when he realizes that he loves Sonia. He is pulled out of his own mental hell and is confronted with the fact that he cares for her well-being.
Granted, I don't really buy the fact that Raskolnikov actually loves Sonia. I truly wonder if he is capable of love at all. He says he loves his mother and sister but does very little that would actually show it. He was once engaged, but to sickly girl that he used as a microphone, to voice all his inner thoughts to.
But what I really think lies in the redemption of Raskolnikov is that he finally accepts the love from those around him. He constantly pushes away those who loves them. He deems himself unworthy. He assumes that they would be better off without him. It isn't until the end of the book that he finally sees that he would be better off with them. Life is finally worth living once he accepts love and he is ready to give back love in return.
In my humble opinion, I think that compared to a religious epiphany, this is a more powerful epiphany to have. It's a much more universal theme that can speak to all people, regardless of religion.