Posted by Allison on February 19, 19102 at 17:30:37:
In Reply to: Grushenka's freakin onion! posted by Amy L. on March 18, 19101 at 19:37:24:
: What is the significance of the onion Grushenka gave in book VII?
- Grushenka's onion displayed to Alyosha her ablility to forgive and to love, depite her baseness. He was in a distraught state of mind, unable to grasp the injustice in Zosima's death and how the 'herd' of people reacted. Relate Zosima to Christ in the Grand Inquisitor. There, the people reject their Christ figure. So Alyosha is on the brink of rejecting God's unjust world- he is desperate to have his freedom removed, because if God shows himself in a miracle of justice, this would remove the freedom to possess one's faith. Alyosha is desperate for justice, desperate to have his freedom to have faith (or not have faith) removed. This is one of the temptations that Jesus rejected (no freedom), think back to the Grand Inquisitor. With Grushenka and her onion, Alyosha realizes that she has the freedom to forgive and the freedom to love. He then reaccepts freedom, therefore reaccepting the injustice of the world that his brother Ivan has such a problem with. He accepts the fact that God favors freedom over justice, and with that freedom, the freedom to have faith. That is the meaning of the onion.
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