Culture, the beliefs and custom of a group of people, begins to shape a person from the second that they are born on to the rest of their life. Customs can affect how a child is raised, which in turn affects their thoughts and actions. In the novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky the main character, Raskolnikov, is pushed to commit a murder due to his beliefs on power and class. The strict class and power based Russian society directly affected Raskolnikov’s psychological and moral traits. The Russian society at the time of the book was class based, and Raskolnikov, coming from a high standing and now being broke, is desperate to gain status. In the beginning of the book Raskolnikov is afraid to meet his landlady because he is