‘response paper on the brothers karamazov’  submitted by min-suk jin (uic clc major)  
in this work, there have been many characters and issues which are polemical after all, but these specific characteristics can be generalized based on the bakhtin’s article“problems of dostoevsky’s poetics.”
“in dostoevsky, two thoughts are already two people, for there are no thoughts belonging to no one and every thought represents an entire person.” (p.93)
thus, we can consider several issues in this novel.
1.religion agenda

more than any other agents, we can ruminate on the issue of religion in this novel. relating to the concern of religion, ivan is an atheist and alyosha is religiously devout and faithful

ivan can be represented by the typical reincarnation of non-believer, atheist and theological iconoclast; on the other hand, alyosha can be feasible ‘would-be’ saint, the good social being and bona-fide believer. in the same context, the materialistically scant women in this novel are firm believers in religious creed, on the other hand, financially ample women had shown the skin-deep frivolity and atheistically subliminal stance about religion in this novel

let us confirm these two compelling quotations underpinning the aforementioned remark.
tance does not grow scarce within you then god will forgive you anything.and indeed there is and can be no sin upon all the earth that the lord will not forgive the truly repentant.” (bk 2,ch 3)
burst into terrible, unrestrained fits of her long, nervous, quivering and inaudible laughter.the elder smilingly heard her out and with tenderness blessed her; but as she began to kiss his hand, she suddenly pressed it to her eyes and broke into tears,[…]” (bk 2, ch 4)
2.conflicted issue between faith and skepticism

seconndly, in this novel, zosima is unbelievably replete with the dignified faith in human-being itself. for one thing, he took a bow to dmitri: which can verify his creed to the man’s dignity and sufferings down the road

on the other caliber, dmitri was continuously suspicious of human-being and had a malicious intention against grushenka in this novel. for instance, dmitri had unceasingly monitored the every nook and cranny of grushenka’s actions with bursting skepticism

3.ambivalence of human-being: equivocal binary opposition between good and evil
third of all, this novel had cut an idiosyncratic figure: smerdyakov had shown the disintegrated and dichotomized contrast of human nature within himself.let me demonstrate this peculiar feature in the following quotation.

his back on everything and go to jerusalem to wander and live as a monk, or perhaps he will suddenly burn down his native village, or perhaps both the one and the other will occur at the same time. there is a sufficiency of contemplators among the common folk

and smerdyakov was probably one of them and was probably likewise avidly saving up his impressions, almost without himself knowing why yet. ” (bk 3, ch 6)
4.aerarchical order of class
forth of all, we can confirm the clear and telltale evidence of ‘class incongruity’ in this novel: which can indicate the former soviet social tide at those times.
“[…] ou want us to do?’ they said, ‘sit our servants down on the sofa and bring them cups of tea?’ and then i said to them in answer: ‘well, why not, if at least only on occasion?’ then they all laughed.their question was frivolous one, and my reply unclear, but i think that it contained a certain amount of truth.” (bk 6, ch3)
5.violent spin-offs around money motifthis novel
lastly, iis novel, there had been many obvious obsessions with the money and their by-products: violence and possible murder.   (이하 생략)