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Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7144.Crime_and_Punishment?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Crime and Punishment" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1201274754m/7144.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7144.Crime_and_Punishment?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Crime and Punishment</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3356.Fyodor_Dostoevsky">Fyodor Dostoevsky</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/21876692?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> rating: 5 of 5 stars<br/>I have read Crime and Punishment twice now. It has many messages and symbols that I think I recognized this second time around. The main character distances himself from others thinking himself to be a superman of sorts, and thinking himself such kills a pawnbroker who he terms a "louse" and who cheats the poor out of their money. He is alienated even more from society and his family by his guilt and self-loathing. He is a walking contradiction, doing good and evil, craving company and shunning all, being too busy to do any more because he is laying around all day. The story though is one of redemption. I think the story shows that it is easier to take the punishment that society mandates or the repentance that God requires, than to live daily with the punishment that our own conscience and our minds mete out. It is worth it to take up our cross and expiate our crimes/sins and to feel true love and happiness that is the result. The story references the Bible story of Lazarus, and it really is the story of a man's soul rising from the dead. <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/924272?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>