Rodia Turning a Leaf (Alexia Barrios)

Previously I believed that Rodia was a selfish, egotistical human being with a major superiority complex, but I believe I am seeing a change in him.  I truly thought that there was no hope for Rodia. I thought his attitude was one that would make it challenging for him to change into a somewhat compassionate person, but I believe that in this weeks reading I have witnessed him turn a leaf. After Dunia, his mother and Razumikhin devise a plan for him to care for her and for them to start a publishing company, he decides he needs to leave them. He claims he “is not at peace”(299) clearly from committing the murder and the emotional and psychological turmoil that resulted from that, and for that reason chooses to leave. This marks a change in his character, and for the first time it demonstrates his capability to care for others and not just himself. He recognizes the importance of his family and does not want to taint them with his growing guilt. For some reason, the manner of which he left his family and that he put them above himself, allows me to believe that he will confess. He seems to have changed slightly, and because he was the one who in the moment decided it was best for his family was to leave leaves me to believe that he is preparing them for what is to come after he confesses. Also, the interaction between Rodia and Razumikhin also makes this evident as they looked at one another and Rodia’s “burning and intent eyes grew more and more penetrating every moment, piercing into his soul and into his consciousness” (300) resulting in Razumikhin “turning pale” (300) from the truth.

I have also grown to despise Luzhin and everything he stands for. I despise how he finds that he believes he has to come in and marry Dunia because he finds it to be heroic of him. I find his whole ”voluptuous dreams of marriage” (294) and his image of the perfect girl to be disturbing as one of his requirements was that “she must be poor” (294).  The idea that he wants to rescue these women from their poor lives and make them “slavishly grateful all her life for his heroic condescension, and would humble herself in the just before him” (294) only shows his urgency for power. So when this dream is taken away from him and she ends it with him, I fear how he will handle this later on in the novel, as it is evident that he despised Rodia and even more than Rodia, he dreaded Svidrigailov finding them both to be the cause of the severance of his engagement.