Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov

Can You Find God in Sodom?

In one poignant scene of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, the character Dmitri asks, “Can there be beauty in Sodom?” (Dostoevsky 208). However, through the character of his father Fyodor, it is suggested that there is not just beauty in Sodom, but perhaps also an alternative image of God himself. Of course, Fyodor is no saint; he is a sensualist and shows complete unrestraint. Fyodor pales in comparison to the elder Father Zosima. However, perhaps Fyodor Pavlovich, with all his flaws and corrupt behavior, is just as godlike as Father Zosima, who is of course a good man and an uncorrupt follower of God. Alyosha, the youngest of Fyodor’s sons, is of course the Christ figure of the novel. When Ilyusha, a boy whose father had previously been wronged by Dmitri, strikes Alyosha with a stone, Alyosha shows active love by approaching the boy with words of love. However, the boy continues to throw stones at Alyosha, with the encounter culminating in him ferociously biting Alyosha’s finger. Although he is rather frustrated with the boy for this, Alyosha still accepts these violent actions. After all, he

Ivan rejects the Christian idea that there should be harmony in the future because he does not want people, especially children, to suffer in order to achieve that harmony. He even claims that “they have put too high a price on harmony; we can’t afford to pay so much for admission” (245). In the end, it is his compassion for others, combined with his lack of compassion for God, that spurs him to condemn God’s actions. He believes that the distant harmony that is promised with forgiveness is not worth the suffering in the