Brothers K- Alyosha Fyodorvich Karamazov

I'm still trying to get a proper handle on Alyosha. The first thing that seems to strike me is that of all the characters in the novel, with the possible exception of Father Z, Alyosha is the one character that is extremely likable. Now, we may have a great deal of sympathy for Ivan, or empathize with crazy Dimitri, or find even Fyodor Pavlovitch amusing but Alyosha, compared to the rest of these characters, is shining.

Young, friendly, altruistic and guileless, he approaches the world with a great deal of love. He cares about his brothers and father and they, in turn, seem to care (in their own peculiar way) for him even while they are at each others' throats.

As initial pass I want to just note a few observations I have of Alyosha up to this point.

1) He is not a mystic, nor even much of an ascetic. In an early chapter it states that he is a 'realist.'

As soon as he reflected seriously he was convinced of the existence of God and immortality, and at once he instinctively said to himself: "I want to live for immortality, and I will accept no compromise." In the same way, if he had decided that God and immortality did not exist, he would at once have become an atheist and a socialist. (Ch 5)

That is to say, he quite genuinely believes in the resurrection as a fact as plain as that there are clouds in the sky.

2) Alyosha seems to have a certain sort of impulsiveness that is common to his father and brother Dimtri. This impulsiveness however is often differently directed.
3) Related to this, he is told by Rakitin that he is a sensualist, and inherits this trait from his father. (What is the role of genealogy and blood ties in this book?)
4) His mother is different than Dimitri's but the same as Ivan's: a beautiful, young religious woman whom Fyodor Pavlovitch was very cruel to up until she died. (Mary?)
5) He lives in the monastery, but is not a monk. Father Z is constantly sending him out on 'missions' from the monastery to the town, missions that Alyosha willingly undertakes though against some of his inclinations to stay. (What is Alyosha's relationship between these two worlds?)
6) He does not act with guile, but throughout the first section, particularly in the case of the 'wisp of tow' captain, we can see that he comes to realize that others are not completely as honest as he is. This seems to make him sad, but not angry. He also learns to expect this sort of behavior and attempts to understand it.