Thematic Analysis of “one Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by Aleksandr SolzhenitsynEssay Preview: Thematic Analysis of “one Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by Aleksandr SolzhenitsynReport this essayThroughout the 20th century, many countries were ruled by totalitarian leaders who were ready to commit many horrible deeds in order to achieve their goals. Josef Stalin, the leader of Soviet Union between 1924 and 1953, is the perfect example of a despotic ruler, who was responsible for the deaths of millions of people. He believed that communism would transform the Soviet Union into a perfect nation, with an ideal society where everyone would be treated equally. However, in order to achieve this perfection, all external and, more importantly, internal enemies had to be destroyed. Instead of a perfect nation, Stalin created a system, which was based on fear and denunciation, where killing of the so-called “enemies of the nation” became a sport, where Stalins representatives competed against each other on the basis of the number of “enemies” killed. Throughout almost three decades, millions of innocent people were either killed or put into labour camps. The author of the book himself, was sentenced to eight years in a concentration camp for his anti-Soviet views, which he expressed in writing, and through the characters of his novel, Solzhenitsyn portrays his personal beliefs. Most of the characters in “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” are innocent people, who have never done anything reprehensible. Among them is Gopchik, a sixteen-year-old boy who was sentenced to 10 years in concentration camp for giving milk to Ukrainian nationalist rebels, and Aleshka the Baptist who received twenty-five years for his religious beliefs. The protagonist of the novel, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, is a simple man without any heroic qualities. He is a former carpenter who was sent off to the battlefield during the World War II. After being captured by the Germans, Ivan and five of his fellow soldiers were able to escape and return to the Soviet military base. However, three of them were killed instantly, mistaken for German soldiers while the fourth soldier died from wounds a couple of days later. Although Ivan Denisovich was not shot, he was arrested and accused of being a German spy. Even though he was innocent, he had to confess during the interrogation, because he understood that he would be shot immediately if he did not. As a result, he was sentenced to ten years in a Siberian concentration camp for betraying Soviet Union. The Soviet labour camps represented a small-scale totalitarian nation, where wardens were the despotic rulers who frequently abused the prisoners. The story presents Shukhov during the ninth year of his sentence. During the past eight years he had faced a tremendous amount of humiliation and pain. However, despite all difficulties through which Shukhov went through, he has not lost his strength and internal freedom. Through Shukhov, Solzhenitsyn proves that even in inhuman conditions, it is possible to stay human. At one point in the story, the author mentions that no one was able to come out alive from a Siberian concentration camp after serving a ten-year sentence. However, Shukhov has only two years left in his sentence and something seems to be drive him towards his last day in the labour camp. The elements that are helping Ivan Denisovich during the harsh times are: physical labour, alliances with other prisoners, and his dignity and internal strength.
For Shukhov and many other zeks, physical labour rescued them from all illnesses and sufferings. It distracted them from thinking about all the problems they had to face in their everyday lives. According to Solzhenitsyn, human dignity, and internal freedom are established in labour. Ironically, laying stones in freezing cold weather is what makes the prisoners happy: during work they feel free, joke around, and open up to each other by telling their stories. The government can strip zeks of everything, however the satisfactions from the well-completed work can never be taken away. Ivan Denisovich feels so passionate about his work that he forgets about the fierce cold or even the hunger, which all the prisoners are constantly experiencing. Even after the job is completed, he does not want to leave the work site: he keeps on checking on the walls that they have built making sure that everything is perfect. Solzhenitsyns description of Shukhov implies that he believes that it is people like Ivan Denisovich who are the driving force of the nation and therefore decide its destiny.
It is natural for humans to give and receive care and affection. No one can survive entirely on his own, and everyone has to interact with other humans in order to stay mentally stable. Through frequently recurring examples friendship and simple companionship between the convicts has helped them survive through all the horrors of their lives. One example of this is the friendship between two Estonians who “clung together as though neither would have air enough to breathe without the other.” (Solzhenitsyn, p. 50) They preserve their language and cultural values and beliefs and even seem to be unaffected by what happens in the camp. In contrast, Fetyukov, who overall is described as an unpleasant man, is unable to develop any friendships. He is regarded as a loser by most of the prisoners
(Solzhenitsyn, p. 50) (Miles’ article, p. 431) It follows that the prisoners will most certainly not cooperate; a common practice on the Finnish prisoners, where they are usually punished for something they did not do, can be seen in the behavior of a prisoner in isolation and in later years. The prisoners who have done nothing for ten years will refuse to cooperate after a year or so and they are less likely to get up to go to sleep after the one or two weeks the prisoner is allowed. This is likely because their minds are not made up entirely of the same cells, so they are almost always in the same place at the same time. (Miles’ article, p. 456) It is said that in the camps the children that were killed for food were not allowed to receive any kind of education, and that most of them were confined to the cell for a year. It is also known. (Solzhenitsyn, p. 534) This fact in spite of a certain number of prisoners who were considered normal human beings. (Solzhenitsyn, p. 541)
Children, of and for themselves are treated as human beings in some cases. They are kept in isolation and confined to a cell. Children are rarely or never allowed any free time or meals, or food at all. They are usually in solitary solitary confinement without a cell for as long as twenty-four hours a day. Some prisoners even sleep separately from their families during the entire time. Such treatment is carried out by the prison staff. (Miles’ article, p. 547) (Solzhenitsyn, p. 563) They are also held by guards to consider the effects of the punishment given to them, and the conditions imposed on them, by the government. (Miles’ article, p. 483) As a consequence, children become more and more vulnerable as the weeks pass. In fact, some children have as little or no time to learn what the prison staff gives them, and the children in isolation suffer from the same difficulties in the first few years after being placed in isolation they had before. (Miles’ article, p. 459) Such punishment would have been imposed only so many times after all, and it would have caused the children less stress, no longer had any nightmares, and had less and fewer problems of waking up. (Miles’ article, p. 464) This punishment by which a family of two becomes the victim of a very short time during the next twelve months often involves a different kind of punishment. The government tries to do little about this, for various reasons, including the fact that children are constantly being moved about so that they can experience things that are not normal, like lack of sleep and physical pain from eating or taking medicines.‰ (Miles’ article, p. 477) Children do not live a life