Suffering in Crime and Punishment and One Day in the Life
of Ivan Denisovich
Survival trough suffering is a general theme running through the novels.
Different forms of survival occur because in different scenarios. In One
Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, the story takes place in a prison camp,
whereas in Crime and Punishment takes place in society. During the course
of the two novels, it becomes quite apparent to the reader that some
characters have a reason that helps them drive forward through times of
suffering. The types of suffering are differentiated for each character
and so is their own individual way of tolerating the pain. For example, in
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, the main character, Shukov, suffers
due to the harshly cold conditions that he has to deal with in the prison
camp. In Crime and Punishment, the main character, Raskolnikov, suffers
from his guilt which he induces on himself when he realises that killing
the old moneylender was wrong. Therefore, this essay is similar to an
investigation into how the main characters of each novel manage to cope
with each of their individual sufferings.
In One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, the main character, Shukov, is
coping with a tremendous amount pain. "But try and spend eight years in a '
special'- doing hard labour. No-one's come out of a 'special' alive."
This shows how severe the conditions are as no-one has ever lasted a mere
eight years. "A couple of hundred grams ruled your life." Here, he tells
the reader that a few hundred grams of bread would determine a man's life
in that camp showing how little food is given to the prisoners. He is
forced to live and work in conditions that would repulse the average person
today. "The belly is a rascal. It doesn't remember how well you treated it
yesterday , it'll cry out for more tomorrow." The way these people were
treated were inhumane and intolerable, yet Shukov continued to survive.
Work was used as a distraction from thinking about his pains, problems and
family.
Physical labour was one of two elements of Shukov's life that help him
survive. "And now Shukov and the other masons felt the cold no longer.
Thanks to the urgent work, the first wave of heat had come over them..."
work obviously plays a large role on how Shukov copes. The work helped
them through the cold, that is, it helped them take their mind off it and
the movement gave their body warmth a slight boost that was welcomed by all
of the prisoners. In addition, "If it's necessary to work faster then lets
work faster. Just as you say." This shows that workers did not mind
working harder as they would benefit in the form of more body heat and a
greater reward in terms of food. This acted as a large incentive to work
motivating the to work hard and well. Another quote that shows how it was
work that helped Shukov survive is "Difficult as it was to start working in
such cold, the important thing was to get going." The inmates worked was
not because they were told to, but because they knew that to get their
minds off the cold they had to work or they would be forced to face the
cold and they would then freeze. Once they begin to work, all their pains
go away and sometimes the team even has fun once the good work gets started.
Shukov gives an example of this at the very beginning of the book he could
be heard complaining of his aches and pains, however, as soon as he begins
working there is no more mention of any pains whatsoever.
The team leader also helped Shukov survive throughout the entire camp.
"That's what a team is. A guard can't get people to budge even in working
hours, but a team leader can tell his men to get on with the job even
during the break, and they'll do it. Because he's the one who feeds them.
And he'd never make them work for nothing." The team leader is an extremely
important element in survival in the camps as a good team leader could
possibly mean that the members of his team would get more food and better
jobs than the other teams in the camp, "You can cheat anyone you like in
camp, but not your team leader. Then you'll live." This quote shows how
important it is to stay on good grounds with the team leader as it is he
who gives you your rations for the day. Another quote that emphasises that
the team leader is important is the following, "In camp the team leader is
everything: a good one will give you a second life, a bad one will put you
in your coffin."
An additional extract from the novel shows how teamwork helped the
population of prisoners in the camp survive:
"Everything was so arranged in the camp that the prisoners egged one
another on. It was like this: either you all got a little bit extra or
you croaked. You're slacking you rat - d'you think I'm willing to go
hungry just because of you?"
This shows how all prisoners are pushed by the other team members to keep
on working hard. This is because if a prisoner didn't work, extra food
would be kept from the entire team giving each individual a huge incentive
to push another person on to work harder.
In Crime and Punishment Raskolnikov, deals with his sufferings in a
different way as to that of Shukov. This is obvious as Raskolnikov has
completely different types of sufferings to deal with. Guilt overwhelms
Raskolnikov as he is aware that what he believed was wrong.
"There are people who are able....who have every right to commit anything
wrong or crime, and that laws....are not made for them....People are
divided into two classes, the 'ordinary' and the 'extraordinary'. The
ordinary ones must live in submission and have no right to transgress laws,
because, you see, they are ordinary. And the extraordinary have the right
to commit any crime just because they are extraordinary."
This was Raskolnikov's belief, that he was 'special' therefore meaning
above the law and that he could do whatever whenever he wanted to do. This
gives him the justification to murder the old money lender. However, his
theory later backfires as he begins to feel guilty "Oh...I am a louse,
nothing more....I myself am perhaps even worse and viler than the louse I
killed." This is his form of punishment, to feel more ordinary and
insignificant than the old lady.
"I am grieved to observe that the only original idea you adduce, is a moral
right to shed blood - this opinion I find you support, even defend with
fanaticism. Moral license or authority to kill is, to my mind, even more
terrible than official legal authority to the same effect."
When Razumikhin says this to Raskolnikov, it is realised how strongly
Raskolnikov believes in his idea of superiority. Raskolnikov's imprisonment
is created by his own guilt and this causes one of the sufferings that he
has to endure. In fact, it isn't until he meets Sonya that he begins to
accept the fact that that was going to be his life. (reword) Sonya, a
catholic forced into prostitution through poverty, has an unselfish love
for Raskolnikov that helps him realise that he is an ordinary human. Sonya
also helps Raskolnikov ridding him of his suffering from guilt. Sonya,
being extremely religious, believes that everyone deserves a second chance.
She then shows Raskolnikov how to be forgiven in God's eyes. She convinces
him to confess to everyone that he murdered the old money lender so that in
God's eyes, he will be forgiven.
"Go immediately, this very moment, go and stand at the cross-roads, bow
down, first kiss the ground that you've desecrated, and then bow to the
whole world, to all four points of the compass and tell everyone, out loud:
'I have I have killed!' Then God will send you life again... you must accept
suffering and redeem yourself by it, that's what."
The two stories required different forms of coping with sufferings. In
Crime and Punishment Raskolnikov realises that what he did was wrong and
separated himself from his guilt by confessing to his crime. In One Day in
the Life of Ivan Denisovich however, Shukov survives through the usage of
work and teamwork. The combination of these two elements are the very
reason why Shukov was still alive during the story. The two stories are,
however, similar in one aspect. Both of the main characters in One Day in
the Life of Ivan Denisovich and Crime and Punishment find themselves in a
situation and they realise what it is that they have to do in order to
continue to survive in this lifetime. They then continue to live using the
methods they learnt of surviving in the different extreme environments that
they are both in. the way the protagonists cope with their suffering not
only helps to resolve their suffering but provides the basis for two
stories I so thoroughly enjoyed.
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