THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Synopsis: The Brothers K is one of the greatest novels ever written and it is also a thousand pages long. There is a lot to the plot and subplots, but here are the basics. It is about four brothers who share the same father but different mothers. Their father is truly a despicable man – he regularly beat and then ultimately abandoned each of the mothers, he tries to steal the fiancé of his eldest son, he sired the fourth son by raping a demented homeless woman. The father ends up murdered, with each of the brothers guilty to different degrees. During the course of the investigation and trial, each of the brothers shows signs of being just like their father.

How it relates to Lost: Ben is given The Brothers K to read while he is held prisoner in the hatch and he has an extended conversation about Dostoevsky with Locke, so it has obvious significance. Just about every character on Lost has daddy issues, which is the theme of the book. Many of the characters are even responsible for their fathers’ deaths. There are many similarities between Christian Shepherd and the father of the Karamazov boys – they are both drunkards and the show implies that Christian tries to steal his son’s wife (S3 opener). The deeper subject of the book is that many of the characters are struggling with issues of faith vs. reason, free will vs. destiny, making it incredibly relevant to the show.