Why did Fyodor Dostoyevsky question whether future compensation could justify terrible suffering?

In his masterpiece The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky explores the problem of evil through the character of Ivan Karamazov. In the chapter titled "Rebellion," Ivan presents a powerful indictment of God by focusing on the suffering of innocent children.12

Dostoyevsky questions whether future compensation or "eternal harmony" can justify such agony because he argues that such concepts must not be used to evade the fundamental requirements of justice and atonement. For Dostoyevsky, the scale of human suffering—particularly that of the innocent—is so profound that it cannot be simply dismissed or balanced out by the promise of an afterlife. By framing this through Ivan, Dostoyevsky highlights the moral tension between abstract theological justifications and the visceral reality of human pain, ultimately challenging the reader to confront whether any "higher" purpose can truly reconcile the existence of horrendous evil.21