Essay about Identifying with Alexei in Dostoevskys The...

Identifying with Alexei in Dostoevskys The Gambler The literary character that I most readily identify with would be Dostoevskys Alexei, The Gambler. I can relate to him because like me, he is a man of many passions. He is also all but helpless against his addiction to gambling. I have also felt helpless to certain circumstances in my life, as have we all. He is capable of much more than what his society allows him to be. That is to say he may be a lowly tutor, but he cares about justice and the atrocities committed by the high-born class. I, through faults of my own and Injustices of my schools administration, also was limited, as Alexei was as to what people thought of me and how they treated me. Alexei†¦show more content†¦Instead, she realized that his one true love was not her but gambling. Whenever I read this story, I think of how much this character that Fyodor Dostoevsky created is similar, in a lot of ways, to myself. I find myself the object of addictions in general. I used to smoke cigarettes and feel helpless against it. Sure, Id stop for a day or two here and there but once I forgot about the misery cigarettes brought me, I would light up another. I feel better now that I stopped smoking but I am scared that it wont last. Like Alexei, I have been interested in the same girl for many years. Just of late, something that I thought would never happen, is happening. I have the chance to be with this girl and I think Im messing it up. She has been my friend for many years and now its moved past friendship into something better and worse. Even though this is happening in the present and I know what to look for, I find myself powerless to the seemingly definite ruin that I feel is coming. Its so frustrating knowing all these things and not being able to change them, or at least feeling as though you cant change them. In my junior year in high school, I took up a personal crusade against what I called the evil administration at my school. I repeatedly got in trouble for things I deemed acceptable but were still against the rules. For instance, one morning I decided that I didnt want to salute the flag. I was sent down to