Dostoyevsky's Alyosha: Antidote to Modern Nihilistic Frankensteins

​Father John Jimenez, from San Francisco, California, has served in various capacities for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. In his role as a teacher at Archdiocese Riordan High School (ARHS), Father John Jimenez taught math and religion there. Below is a talk he gave to the students and staff.
"When I first came to Riordan, I sat out in the Marian Courtyard waiting for a meeting, and brought with me to read Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein", a book common to high school literature classes, and a way I could relate with students and teachers. Though I had never read it, I did see Kenneth Branaugh version of the movie that so poignantly showed the significance of the "creator's" narcissism in what they have created, blinded to the monster they have created and the ensuing destruction. yet, pity for the monster, who through study and desire to be a part of humanity, could quote scientists and philosophers, and concludes he must leave society and go live in the lonely, frozen regions of the Swiss Alps.
The book, at a deeper level, especially the dialogues between scientist and monster, shows this profoundly. It made me wonder where this young teenager, Shelly, discovered these insights that predicted 20th century calamities? Was it the idealism of the French Revolution that became the despotism and war machine of Napoleon's imperialism, and subsequent European wars, especially amongst the German fiefdoms? The inventions and hope of science converted to constant war and destruction, thus poets Mary and Percy, living beyond convention, lacking trust in institutions, the ethos of the "Romantic Era", becoming the Nihilism of Nietzsche. Shelly does not seem to have an answer to this Nihilism, she describes it's origins well, and certainly questions it, and foretells it's destructive consequences.
Was it cynical Nihilism rather than patriotism that drove the British and Zionist, and American and German imperialist war machines that set off WWI and it's consequences throughout the 20th century, and still is the root today of many issues, not only geopolitics, but man's understanding (or lack therof) of himself?
Somehow, Dostyevsky foresaw these issues, and finds his answer in Alyosha, the youngest of the Brothers Karamazov. In this story, set in the guise of a murder mystery of the father, Fyodor, seemingly murdered by one of his sons. Yet, each character is a metaphor not only for pre WWI Russian society, but also for modernity. Fyodor is a nihilist, a cynical manipulator living only for his own selfish desire. Dmitry, the oldest son, a military officer, is confused between the nihilism of his father, and sense of duty and honor of Russian tradition. Ivan, the middle son, is an atheist, and asks the essential question about the existence of God, and finding no answer, seeks the way of "science" and "experts" running everything (which we now know became the empty food shelves and Chernobyl of the soviet era, and the pandemic response of governments today), and Alyosha, who chooses to enter a monastery, not fleeing the world, but choosing a way of life that is cooperative, mutually beneficial, and seeks to live in the harmony of God's holy order. Smyrdykov, the serf and "illegitimate" son, represents the working class, the women, the families, who live at the whim of the powerful who create havoc with their power machinations, which are essentially selfish nihilism
I will leave it to you to discover who the "murderer" is, it is a good whodunnit mystery. Moreso, Alyosha represents the real response of many after WWI who sought to live a Nazareth, cooperative way of life as a response to the nihilistic wars of globalism of the 20th century, and even now, writers like Dorothy Day, Fr Vincent McNabb, Hillarie Belloc, Wendell Berry, Richard Weaver, EF Schumacker, and Antony Chayonov, a soviet economist who, as a response to the failed soviet 5 year plans that created a mass starvation in Ukraine, promoted a distributist, locally free economic model, was sent to die in a soviet gulag., just as many who speak out against government mandates today are cancelled and censored.
It seems we will live with more Frankenstein monsters, and their destructive ways, before we learn the truth of Alyosha