Old Karamazov Readings Pt. 9

Book 10:

This is a very sad book, but it also offers optimism. It tells the story of a mercurial friendship between Kolya and Ilyusha. These two boys became friends when Kolya saw that Ilyusha was being picked on the boys and even though he was outmatched, he always fought back. Kolya has an innate sense of fatherhood and wanted to help Ilyusha, and they became friends because of this.

However, Ilyusha is a very rebellious, and for some odd reason fed the local dog Zuchka a piece of bread with a pin inside, a trick Smerdyakov taught him. This satanic display of indifference toward innocent life is very puzzling, and it shows that the boy has been tormented for a very long time, and no longer believes in the worth of life, whether human or animal. This is shown in the fact that he stabs Kolya with a knife when they fight.

Ilyusha is dying, however, and Katerina (still upset that Dmitri beat Ilyusha's father) sends a doctor from Moscow to the house to try to help him. This is after Ilyusha and Alyosha become acquainted, and an impressive show of respect is displayed between the two, mutually. They enter the house and Ilyusha sees the dog that Kolya called Perezvon, which is actually the dog that he fed the "pinned" bread to, and Ilyusha is very happy at the fact that the dog survived.

This book ends with Kolya promising that he will visit his friend as often as he can.