The main theme and conflict in the novel has been the
juxtaposition of enjoyment and suffering and how humanity accepts both with
equally as much enthusiasm. Dostoyevsky first applied this just to the
individual, saying that people will choose to harm themselves in situations
where it is not necessary. Now Dostoyevsky has applied it to all of society
where we have this need and find pleasure in building and engineering things
unlike any other animal and yet we also find pleasure in destroying the things
we have built and engineered, or more simply put we are constantly
contradicting ourselves.
The things that make humans superior to all other animals
also make us weak. We are genetically predisposed to” eternally make roads,
wherever they may lead” (22). I think what Dostoyevsky was trying to show the
reader is that a lot of what humans do is all in vain. We build roads in hope
of progress, but we never really fully understand what progress means or
entails.
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