When I chose Crime and Punishment to read, I had done a little research first. I am an fan of murder mystery type of media, so this book seemed like it would be something I would be interested in. The book started the way I expected, but as I continued to read became different than what I had expected.
In the beginning pages, Dostoevsky talks about this man who is engulfed in the clutches of severe poverty. He does so, in a very melancholy, low key way. "As for the landlady, from whom he rented this closet with dinner and maid service included, she lived one flight below, in separate rooms, and every time he went out he could not fail to pass the landlady's kitchen, the door of which almost always stood wide open to the stairs. And each time he passed by, the young man felt some painful and cowardly sensation, which made him wince with shame. He was over his head in debt to the landlady and was afraid of meeting her."
For me reading this book, being a teenager growing up, and living in Canada, I don't think I can fully comprehend the kind of poverty Dostoevsky is describing. Canada is a natural resource rich, and (generally) a financially stable country. Recently, we've experienced a recession, but for me personally, I wasn't really affected. In Canada, most people don't know what poverty is. Of course poverty exists, but most of us don't truly understand what it is to live in poverty-literally having nothing. So in order for me to honestly relate to what I am reading, I'd have to experience it, otherwise it would be a biased opinion of what I think living in poverty is like.
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