Crime and Punishment

The Crime of Alienation The massacre of 25 students at a high school in Colorado shook the nation as the most devastating and heartless crime of youth. No one questions that these murders were a crime to society, as no one questions that rape, assault, and theft are also crimes. Society has dictated and labeled these actions as crimes because they harm others. One must question, however, whether the crime lies more in what caused the …

…of crime and punishment comment a lot about the relationship between society and the individual. If the crime and punishment in this novel center around alienation from society, and the salvation comes in reentering society, then it can be seen that ultimately society rules over the individual. After all, the "gradual renewal of a man, of his gradual regeneration" can only come about, according to Dostoevsky, by conforming and living among society once again (Dostoevsky 527).