Reflection - Book Report/Review Example

After a thoughtful consideration, he eventually carried out his plan and killed Alyona Ivanovna and her sister with an ax. The rest of the story revolved around Raskolnikov’s propaganda to hide the crime or at least remove the suspicion away from him. But despite of his propaganda to mislead people of his crime, his guilt of the crime became apparent that authorities and some people begin to suspect that he is the murderer. This became obvious because when he was summoned to the police station for an unpaid rent, he became obviously nervous with the mention of the murder that made the police suspect Raskolnikov to be the murderer.

Porfiry Petrovich at the police department suspected Raskolnikov that even if Nikolai, a workman  confessed to be the murderer, he was still not convinced that he killed Alyona Ivanovna. He admited however that he does not have enough evidence to arrest Raskolnikov for the crime. Svidrigailov on the other hand knew it was RAskolnikov who killed Alyona Ivanovna by his demeanor alone. Propaganda works by misleading people with false information or by just riding with the prevailing erroneous information so that the blame and arrest will not be done on the true culprit.

It can be deliberate and it can also be subtle. Whenever possible, the real culprit would hide himself or herself from the slightest involvement on the crime so as not to cite suspicion. In cases however where it is inevitable to hear and notice the case of the murder such as the case of Raskolnikov, guilt can be difficult to conceal and thus defeating the intention of the propaganda to misled and conceal. I can only imagine the internal struggle of Raskonikov on how to not appear nervous and obvious when the murder of Alyona Ivanovna is mentioned.

The stress that he is undergoing every time he hears the murder of Alyona Ivanovna is just unbearable that got sick with the idea of it. Persuasion on the other hand is the external influence of a person, or an event, things to another person, event or things to do certain things which in the case of Dotoyoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is the influence of Sonya towards Raskolnikov to confess. It was not easy for Raskolnikov to confess his guilt knowing that he will serve time in Siberia. Also, he already used propaganda to mislead the authorities and people about his guilt and it will just aggravate his sin if he will confess to the murder which explains why it was not easy for him to confess.

Confessing one’s sin is never easy especially if it bears criminal liability such as the case of Raskolnikov. It is not only admitting culpability of the crime but also serving justice which could be very difficult and painful. Nevertheless, Raskolnikov did it. The confession on his part especially to Sonya became easier because instead of blaming him, Sonya instead encouraged him to do the right thing and confessed his guilt to the authorities. And to give Raskolnikov inner strength to go ahead, he was given a rosary by Sonya.

A certain persuasion can be very powerful which in the case of Raskolnikov still made him proceed despite the news that  Svidrigailov’s, the person who knew of his murder commit suicide. For once, he hesitated because the death of Svidrigailov’s meant a greater chance of concealing his crime no one, except his sister Dunya and Sonya now knows of his crime and the two person can be trusted to hide his crime. They both love him and