Mama Raskolnikov and Her Adjectives (Rachael Marks)

Before I begin I am going to say that from now on I will be calling Raskolnikov "Rodia" from now on. I feel like it is easier and will be less distracting as I write out my reactions. The names in this book confuse me very much- but considering that Raskolnikov is, I believe, his last name, I feel like it may be less confusing to identify him as his mother does. Anyways, what I would like to say is that I found chapter three very entertaining. Rodia's mother (who I will call Pulcheria) seems to be quite the character. She really seems to have a thing for adjectives, and has a wide range of them. Nothing seems to be able to be simple, it has to be vastly extrodinary to this woman. I found her colorful language to be hilarious actually, because it is immensely repetitive. When she describes Dunia she is bent on characterizing her as this good-hearted, innocent, girl. She uses words like "resolute", "sebsible", "patient", "generous", and "noble" to describe her affinity for her daughter. My favorite phrase that Pulcheria uses is deffinitely "she is an angel", which she uses about four times in the letter. I think I can tell who the favorite child is. Throughout the letter I was wondering if the pictures she was painting of Dunia and Peter were at all accurate. When I got to the line "one could never judge of a man without seeing him up close for oneself" (p. 39) I felt as if Dostoevsky could possibly be alluding to this same thought. Pulcheria certaintly has very strong opinions on people that she does not like to describe with brevity, I hope to soon find out how accurate or inaccurate her evaluations are. Is Dunia really "an angel"?