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Foreshadowing
Part 2: Book 4, Chapter 7: And in the Fresh Air
Explanation and Analysis:
The Brothers Karamazov is broadly regarded as a major work in the genre of literary realism. Like other realist authors, Dostoevsky portrays the lives of ordinary people in a realistic fashion, eschewing the emphasis on idealism and the supernatural that defined Romanticism. In The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky is particularly attuned to social issues in 19th century Russia, such as poverty and socioeconomic inequality. This typically realist focus is evident in Dostoevsky’s portrayal of the impoverished Snegiryov family. After witnessing the wealthy Dmitri publicly beat his father, Captain Nikolai Ilyich Snegiryov, Ilyusha discusses the harsh realities of class and social status with his father:
‘Papa,’ he asked, ‘papa, is it true that the rich are stronger than anybody in the world?’
‘Yes, Ilyusha,’ I said, ‘no one in the world is stronger than the rich.’ ‘Papa,’ he said, ‘I’ll get rich, I’ll become an officer, and I’ll beat everybody, and the tsar will reward me. Then I’ll come back, and nobody will dare …’ He was silent for a while, then he said, and his little lips were still trembling as before: ‘Papa,’ he said, ‘our town is not a good town, papa!’ ‘Yes, Ilyushechka,’ I said, ‘it’s really not a very good town.’
Though he is just a young boy, Ilyusha understands that his father, a poor man and a commoner, cannot expect to receive justice from the legal system of Imperial Russia. His father supports this view, claiming that “no one in the world is stronger than the rich.” Ilyusha dreams of someday becoming rich himself so that nobody will ever be able to abuse him as Dmitri abused his father. Though the boy’s ambitious goals are childish and naive, his comments nevertheless reflect the very real social inequalities of the 19th century, a typical focus for literary realism.
Related Themes:
