intertext

I like the way you describe the structure of the novel. It has a sort of contrapuntal feel, not unlike listening to a fugue. And I also appreciated the way that Zosima's body again challenges the church as he has challenged it all along, by revealing the prejudices and the jostling for correctness at its centre (where there should be love and acceptance). It also seems to symbolize Zosima's order that Alyosha go into the world, for what could more clearly represent "the world" in this novel than corrupt flesh. Like his autobiography, the elder's body is a challenge to Alyosha to get past his tendency to separate himself from the Karamazov corruption and to face it head on, which he does in Grushenka's home. You describe it well when you say that he seems to turn into his brothers. Grushenka also reveals that she is not what people assume, that she is, in fact, chaste and as much a victim as a victimizer. And, unlike some of those uptight folks at the monastery, Grushenka knows that half measures and token charity are not enough. Yes, one might boast about having given an onion, but ought one really to boast about having given only an onion . . . ?