Question

How do we know Rodion is poverty stricken? Why does it bother him the least to wear his shabby clothing outside?

Answer 1

Answer:

Rodion is poverty stricken for the narrator tells us that he was in huge debt to his landlady, dressed shabbily and that he was 'crushed by poverty'.

He did not have a care about his looks for his heart was full of hatred and spiteful contempt for the outside world.

Explanation:

The character of Rodion is from Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment". He is shown as a poor ex- law student in need of money who commits a crime t fund his educational purposes.

We can know Rodion is "poverty stricken" by the way the writer had written in the very first chapter of the book. The narrator states "He was hopelessly in debt to his landlady" and that "He was crushed by poverty". Such was his condition, which we again see in the later lines "He was so badly dressed that even a man accustomed to shabbiness would have been ashamed to be seen in the street in such rags".

He wasn't bothered at all to wear his shabby clothes outside as he has too much of contempt and spite for the outside world. The narrator tells us that he had "accumulated bitterness and contempt in the young man’s heart,  that, in spite of all the fastidiousness of youth, he minded his rags least of all in the street".