Finding the Key to St. Peter’s Gates

Religion is found throughout the world, varying by culture, history, and ethnicity. Within different religions there are contrasting beliefs that people hold for different aspects of one’s given faith. Crime and Punishment, written by Fyodor Dostoevsky in the 1800s, is a novel describing the internal battle that the main character, Raskolnikov, experiences after committing two murders. His religious values are influenced by the various characters he encounters, often paralleled as Biblical figures, and their beliefs about the road to take in order to reach salvation. He meets a man who believes suffering will bring atonement for his sins, a woman who chooses to take the moral high road, and notices for the first time a relative’s belief in self-sacrifice and love. Through his interactions with orthodox Christians differ on certain religious views, and those who choose to reject religion altogether, Raskolnikov learns of the true gateway to heaven and that the basic purpose of relig...