The Brothers Karamazov was written by Fyodor Dostoevsky. This novel was Dostoevsky's last work, telling the story of the four Karamazov brothers--each with his own distinct personality and desires. Driven by intense, uncontrollable emotions of rage and revenge, they all become involved in the brutal murder of their despicable father. Exploring the secret depths of humanity's struggles and sins, Dostoevsky unfolds a grand epic which attempts to venture into mankind's darkest heart, and grasp the true meaning of existence.
In Lost
- Locke gave this book to Henry Gale for reading in Maternity Leave
- Henry Gale's Map is drawn on the back of the title page
- "Don't think of a white bear" Article (see The Polar Bear) is a famous psychological experiment in which subjects are asked to NOT think of a white bear for the next five minutes, and ring a bell each time they do. The effect of this attempted thought suppression is that people think of polar bears. The bear was chosen because one of the researchers remembered reading that when Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky challenged his brother not to think of a white bear, the brother remained perplexed for quite a while.
Theories
- The brothers in "Brothers" fall into three allegorical categories of human experience, which may possibly be linked to characters in "Lost"
- The Faithful - Aloysha (John Locke)
- The Rationalist - Ivan (Jack Shephard)
- The Sensualist - Dimitri (James "Sawyer" Ford)
There is a fourth illegitimate brother, Smerdyakov, who is an epileptic that kills their father, but all of the brothers are complicit in the murder in some way. All 3 of the lost characters have major conflicts with a father figure and, as in the case of Jack, may have had an indirect/direct involvement in their deaths. This corresponds to the Oedipal complex located in the brothers of the novel. I have not found a character that corresponds to Smerdyakov yet.
In "Brothers", as well as in "Lost" , there is a possibility that all three are representative parts of a single - and in essence, every - self, which would make even more powerful Sawyer's presence when Dr. Shephard declares his love and remorse before his death. For if they are all parts of a whole, then Dr. Shephard is in a sense his father as well; this would explain Sawyer's complicity in the murder of the father. Jack provides the guilt, Sawyer provides the alcohol. Locke's connection with these two in the story-line is still unclear, but his conflicts with his own father - and his father's unknown fate up until this point - lend credence to this theory. The suggestion that the world of "Lost" may be inside the head of Hurley may instead be a cryptic suggestion that the world of "Lost" is a struggle for belief in the apparent heads (read head singular) of multiple characters, and by extension, all of us.