What is the main role of the subject's laughter? Click here to read the poem "Your Laughter" by Pablo Neruda.
It is a source of healing for the author.
It is a source of desire.
It is a symbol of purpose and faith.
It is a symbol of love and renewal.
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"character is what you are in the dark." dwight lyman moody, in this very witty quotation of his, states we act and think differently when we are "in the dark", that is, when the spotlight is not on us and everyone can see us and consequently judge us. when reading, we tend to be sympathetic to some characters and their dilemmas. by being so, we are saying to ourselves that we agree with those characters' acts and choices, even if they are morally questionable if we have common sense in mind. dwight lyman moody's quotation applies very well to "crime and punishment", by   19th century russian writer fiodor dostoyevsky. raskolnikov, the main character, a former law student who spends his days reflecting upon life and its misery, draws a fatal conclusion: mankind is divided in two main categories: ordinary and extraordinary people. the first are the ones who lead a run-of-the-mill existence and are full of imperfections; the latter are the ones who are spiritually superior, the ones who always know better, and have the right to judge the ordinary ones, as well as eliminate them if for common good. raskolnikov considers himself as belonging to the extraordinary category and decides to kill an old lady who is a money lender and in whose house he rents a small room. raskolnikov compares himself to napoleon, who had the undeniable right to execute tons of people during the war in order to save his nation. of course what the main character decides to do is a horrendous crime, but as readers we feel it is the right thing for him to do, since the victim is a mean old woman who only thinks about money and keeps humiliating her younger sister. what one experiences is a mixture of sympathy and empathy for the character, even though he decides to commit homicide, which is not at all accepted or tolerated by civilized citizens. however, since readers are "in the dark", they allow themselves to feel in ways they would probably never dare to confess to anyone, no matter how nasty or vicious a character can be. after all, they are just reading and doing no harm. in other words, readers are in the dark and can be who they are without being judged.

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the metamorphosis is based on an evident father-son problem. this story shows, as a result of the unthinkable transformation of the son in an insect, the deformation and destruction of the individual caused by the authoritarian and hierarchical structures of the family. the narrative begins with the transformation into an insect of enormous proportions of the traveling salesman gregor samsa, a lonely, introverted and submissive, who keeps his family with his work. when he worked, he was appreciated by everyone, but, now that he can not work, he is despised, especially by his father, but this is going to be joined, painfully for the protagonist, first his mother and, finally, his own sister, grete, with whom he had held a special relationship of complicity and affection for many years.

condemned by a deep sense of responsibility, gregor fears the reaction that his frightful aspect will incite in his family. he feels guilty for not being able to continue being useful to the beings he maintained. his own family, however, is ashamed and runs away from him, and even tyrannizes and resists him. the father, of a severe and despotic character, humiliates him and treats him with great cruelty. all his attempts to escape from the confinement to which he is subjected in his own room fail before the hostile rejection of the beings that surround him. prisoner in his lair and unable to continue playing the only function of making money he had, finally chooses, with the consent of his parents and sister, to die of starvation. with this, he is freed from a servile and unhappy existence. the family appreciates gregor while he fulfills the interests. but when he is unable to continue earning money, it becomes a problem, a shame, and family relationships begin to become tense, until coexistence becomes impossible.