Summary
When Children Throw Stones
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Walking through town, Alyosha encounters a group of schoolboys throwing stones at a lone child across a ditch. The isolated boy is clearly outnumbered—six against one—but he fights back fiercely. When Alyosha tries to intervene and protect the solitary child, the boy surprisingly turns his aggression on Alyosha himself, even biting his finger badly enough to draw blood. The other children claim the boy is dangerous, that he stabbed someone with a penknife, but Alyosha senses there's more to the story. Despite being attacked, Alyosha responds with remarkable patience, asking the child what he's done wrong rather than retaliating. This only seems to confuse and overwhelm the boy, who breaks into tears and runs away. The incident haunts Alyosha—he realizes this child somehow knows him, and there's a mystery here he needs to solve. This scene serves as a powerful metaphor for how we often attack those who try to help us when we're in pain, and how real compassion means staying present even when someone lashes out. Alyosha's response demonstrates that sometimes the most healing thing we can do is refuse to fight back, instead asking the deeper question: what wound is driving this anger? The chapter also shows how children often become proxies for adult conflicts they don't fully understand.
Coming Up in Chapter 28
Alyosha continues to the Hohlakov house, where he'll encounter more family drama and romantic complications. The mysterious angry child will have to wait—but this encounter has planted seeds that will grow into something much larger.
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An excerpt from the original text.(~500 words)
A Meeting With The Schoolboys “Thank goodness he did not ask me about Grushenka,” thought Alyosha, as he left his father’s house and turned towards Madame Hohlakov’s, “or I might have to tell him of my meeting with Grushenka yesterday.” Alyosha felt painfully that since yesterday both combatants had renewed their energies, and that their hearts had grown hard again. “Father is spiteful and angry, he’s made some plan and will stick to it. And what of Dmitri? He too will be harder than yesterday, he too must be spiteful and angry, and he too, no doubt, has made some plan. Oh, I must succeed in finding him to‐day, whatever happens.” But Alyosha had not long to meditate. An incident occurred on the road, which, though apparently of little consequence, made a great impression on him. Just after he had crossed the square and turned the corner coming out into Mihailovsky Street, which is divided by a small ditch from the High Street (our whole town is intersected by ditches), he saw a group of schoolboys between the ages of nine and twelve, at the bridge. They were going home from school, some with their bags on their shoulders, others with leather satchels slung across them, some in short jackets, others in little overcoats. Some even had those high boots with creases round the ankles, such as little boys spoilt by rich fathers love to wear. The whole group was talking eagerly about something, apparently holding a council. Alyosha had never from his Moscow days been able to pass children without taking notice of them, and although he was particularly fond of children of three or thereabout, he liked schoolboys of ten and eleven too. And so, anxious as he was to‐day, he wanted at once to turn aside to talk to them. He looked into their excited rosy faces, and noticed at once that all the boys had stones in their hands. Behind the ditch some thirty paces away, there was another schoolboy standing by a fence. He too had a satchel at his side. He was about ten years old, pale, delicate‐looking and with sparkling black eyes. He kept an attentive and anxious watch on the other six, obviously his schoolfellows with whom he had just come out of school, but with whom he had evidently had a feud. Alyosha went up and, addressing a fair, curly‐headed, rosy boy in a black jacket, observed: “When I used to wear a satchel like yours, I always used to carry it on my left side, so as to have my right hand free, but you’ve got yours on your right side. So it will be awkward for you to get at it.” Alyosha had no art or premeditation in beginning with this practical remark. But it is the only way for a grown‐up person to get at once into confidential relations with a child, or still more with a group of children. One must begin in a serious, businesslike way...
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Intelligence Amplifier™ Analysis
The Road of Wounded Striking - When Pain Attacks Its Healers
When prolonged pain makes someone attack those trying to help them, mistaking kindness for threat due to past conditioning.
Why This Matters
Connect literature to life
This chapter teaches how to recognize when someone's hostility is actually a trauma response disguised as an attack.
Practice This Today
This week, notice when someone reacts disproportionately to your offer of help—ask yourself what wound might be driving their response rather than taking it personally.
Now let's explore the literary elements.
Terms to Know
Scapegoating
When a group singles out one person to blame and attack, often for problems they didn't cause. The isolated child becomes the target for everyone else's anger and frustration.
Modern Usage:
We see this in workplaces when everyone blames the new person, or online when people pile onto someone for a mistake.
Proxy conflict
When people fight about one thing but they're really angry about something else entirely. The children's fight reflects the adult tensions they've absorbed but don't understand.
Modern Usage:
Like when couples fight about dishes when they're really fighting about feeling unappreciated.
Displaced aggression
Taking out your anger on someone who didn't cause it, usually because they feel safer to attack than the real source of your pain.
Modern Usage:
When someone has a bad day at work and snaps at their family, or when kids act out at school because of problems at home.
Pack mentality
How people in groups often act more cruel or aggressive than they would alone. The schoolboys feel brave attacking one child because they outnumber him.
Modern Usage:
Social media pile-ons, workplace bullying, or how people act differently in crowds than they do one-on-one.
Wounded healer response
When someone who's been hurt tries to help others in pain, but gets attacked for their efforts. Alyosha's kindness triggers more anger from the hurt child.
Modern Usage:
When you try to help someone in crisis and they lash out at you instead of accepting help.
Russian Orthodox compassion
A spiritual approach that responds to violence with patience and understanding rather than retaliation. Alyosha embodies this religious ideal of turning the other cheek.
Modern Usage:
Any philosophy that teaches responding to anger with curiosity about what's really wrong, rather than fighting back.
Characters in This Chapter
Alyosha
Compassionate mediator
He tries to stop the bullying and responds to being attacked with patience rather than anger. When the boy bites him, he asks what he's done wrong instead of retaliating.
Modern Equivalent:
The coworker who stays calm when someone's having a meltdown and asks what's really wrong
The isolated schoolboy
Wounded fighter
Though outnumbered, he fights back fiercely against his attackers. When Alyosha tries to help, the boy turns his aggression on his would-be rescuer, even drawing blood.
Modern Equivalent:
The kid who's been hurt so much they attack anyone who tries to get close, even people trying to help
The group of schoolboys
Pack bullies
Six children ganging up on one, throwing stones across a ditch. They justify their cruelty by claiming their victim is dangerous and violent.
Modern Equivalent:
The group of coworkers who gang up on someone they've decided is the problem
Key Quotes & Analysis
"What have I done to you?"
Context: After the boy bites his finger and attacks him for trying to help
This shows Alyosha's remarkable response to being hurt - instead of anger, he shows genuine confusion and desire to understand. It's the question that breaks through the boy's defenses.
In Today's Words:
Why are you mad at me? I was trying to help you.
"Thank goodness he did not ask me about Grushenka"
Context: His thoughts as he leaves his father's house
Shows how family secrets create stress and complicate relationships. Alyosha is caught between loyalty to different family members and their competing claims.
In Today's Words:
I'm so glad Dad didn't ask about that thing I can't tell him about.
"Both combatants had renewed their energies, and their hearts had grown hard again"
Context: Alyosha's thoughts about his father and brother Dmitri
Describes how conflict escalates when people stop seeing each other as human and prepare for war. The hardening of hearts makes resolution nearly impossible.
In Today's Words:
They were both digging in for a fight and getting meaner about it.
Thematic Threads
Isolation
In This Chapter
The child fights alone against six others, physically and emotionally cut off from community
Development
Builds on earlier themes of characters struggling with belonging and connection
In Your Life:
You might recognize this when you find yourself pushing people away during your hardest moments
Compassion
In This Chapter
Alyosha responds to violence with patience, asking what he's done wrong rather than retaliating
Development
Demonstrates Alyosha's consistent pattern of meeting aggression with understanding
In Your Life:
You see this when you choose curiosity over defensiveness when someone lashes out at you
Hidden wounds
In This Chapter
The child's extreme reaction suggests deeper trauma that the surface conflict doesn't explain
Development
Continues the novel's exploration of how past pain shapes present behavior
In Your Life:
You encounter this when someone's reaction seems way out of proportion to the current situation
Proxy conflicts
In This Chapter
Children acting out adult conflicts they don't fully understand, carrying grown-up grudges
Development
Introduces how family and social tensions get passed down to the next generation
In Your Life:
You might see this in how workplace drama affects your interactions with people outside the conflict
Recognition
In This Chapter
The child somehow knows Alyosha, suggesting their conflict has roots in family history
Development
Sets up mystery that will likely connect to the Karamazov family's broader story
In Your Life:
You experience this when someone treats you with inexplicable hostility that seems to have nothing to do with you personally
You now have the context. Time to form your own thoughts.
Discussion Questions
- 1
Why does the isolated boy attack Alyosha, who's trying to help him, instead of just the bullies?
analysis • surface - 2
What does the boy's reaction tell us about how prolonged hurt affects someone's ability to trust kindness?
analysis • medium - 3
Where have you seen this pattern—someone pushing away help when they need it most—in your workplace, family, or community?
application • medium - 4
How would you respond if someone lashed out at you while you were genuinely trying to help them?
application • deep - 5
What does Alyosha's response—asking 'What have I done wrong?' instead of fighting back—teach us about handling conflict with wounded people?
reflection • deep
Critical Thinking Exercise
Map Your Own Wounded-Striking Pattern
Think of a time when you pushed away someone who was genuinely trying to help you—maybe a supervisor offering support, a friend giving advice, or a family member showing concern. Write down what was happening in your life that made kindness feel threatening. Then identify the real wound underneath your defensive reaction.
Consider:
- •Consider what made you feel vulnerable or unsafe at that moment
- •Look for patterns—do you push away help in specific situations or from certain types of people?
- •Think about what the helper could have done differently to feel less threatening
Journaling Prompt
Write about how you can recognize when you're in 'wounded-striking' mode and what signal you could give trusted people to help them understand you're hurting, not rejecting them.
Coming Up Next...
Chapter 28: Hysteria and Hidden Feelings
What lies ahead teaches us anxiety manifests differently in people - some become frantic, others withdraw, and shows us the way physical pain can serve as a distraction from emotional turmoil. These patterns appear in literature and life alike.