In his 1866 book Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky shows a reader life in St. Petersburg (Russia), where poverty and crime is beyond belief. The book is meant to show the different kinds of classes of society, even though it's not a very well-off society.The main character is Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, a young man living in St. Petersburg, who commits a crime.The story reveals things about Raskonlikov's life , therefore telling the reader what led Raskolnikov to commit the crime. As the story goes on, a reader learns what Raskolnikov saw or thought was going to happen after he commited the crime, and also exactly what happens and what it does to Raskolnikov. Dostoevsky goes on to show the reader what Raskonlikov's options are after he commits the crime and what he has to lose or gain. Also in the story, Dostoevsky includes the things going on in Raskolnikov's life, and the characeters that he deals with and their importance to him and what the different symbols say about Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov goes through major changes in his way of life and way of thinking. He's faced with conflicts with himself, with the characters in the book and with the situations that comes his way. In the story, different sides of Raskolnikov are brought out, and then shown their connection with the different sides of society and different characters. Through various symbols and situations and through Raskolnikov's life, Doestoevsky shows a reader how society treats people who have no money. This book also shows how somethings in 1866 are similar to those happening in soceity today. In brief, Crime and Punishment shows the different ways that Raskolnikov sees life and the different ways that he pays for his crime and what he eventually learns from his life experiences, both from himself own and from other characters.