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analytical essays on one day in the life of ivan denisovich
analytical essays on one day in the life of ivan denisovich
one day in the life of ivan denisovich essay
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Many of Man's struggles are usually the result of societal standards, control, and punishment. These struggles are present in both One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Through setting and internal monologue, both authors depict the effects of the brutalities of communism on Man's spirituality.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich demonstrates the brutalities of communism as symbolized by the brotherhood of men inside a forced labor prison camp in Siberia. The underlining theme of a Soviet backed camp system reflects both communism's contributing influence to the novellas internal monologue and setting. Not understanding the novella's present system of government would not give the reader a full appreciation of the text. The role of communism within this story is vital in both reading and understanding the novella. Further insight and discussion of communism?s influence seems without question, necessary.
Solzhenitsyn's first book, this economical, relentless novella is one of the most forceful artistic writings of political oppression in the Stalin-era Soviet Union. The simply told story in the setting of a typical, grueling day of the character's life in a labor camp in Siberia, is a modern classic of Russian literature and quickly cemented Solzhenitsyn's international reputation upon publication in 1962. It is painfully apparent that Solzhenitsyn himself spent time in the gulags.
He was imprisoned for nearly a decade as punishment for making criticizing statements about Stalin in a letter to a friend. This motif of communist oppression is reflected both in the authors life and, his writings in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
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...Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and Crime & Punishment carry underlining themes of communism in which the characters struggle within society based on the societal standards demanded of them. Without knowledge of communism?s influence, the reader cannot fully appreciate the meaning of both novels in Man?s struggle against a utilitarian foe or contributor. It would be the same as reading the Declaration of Independence, and not understanding the concepts of democracy, or the events leading up to such a revolt for liberty. I clearly see a relationship between the Soviet communist government and its influence in the writings of both novels. The brutalities of communism are clearly reflected in both novels through internal monologue and setting, which I personally believe are major contributing factors in the structure and development of the two novels as a whole.
Intro with Thesis: A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a novel by Alexander Solzhenitsyn that documents totalitarian communism through the eyes of an ordinary prisoner in a Soviet labor camp. This story describes the protagonist, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, as he freezes and starves with the other prisoners, trying to survive the remainder of his ten-year sentence. In this story, Solzhenitsyn uses the struggles in the camp as a way to represent the defaults of the Soviet Union under Stalin’s regime. By doing this, Solzhenitsyn uses authoritative oppression in his labour camps to demonstrate the corrupt nature of the Soviet system.
Life is a wheel rolling inexorably forward through the temporal realm of existence. There are those that succumb to its motion and there are a certain few, like Christ and Napoleon, who temporarily grasp the wheel and shape all life around them. "Normal" people accept their positions in life and are bound by law and morality. Extraordinary people, on the other hand, supersede the law and forge the direction and progress of society. Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, is the story of a group of people caught beneath the wheel and their different reactions to their predicament. One individual, Raskolnikov, refuses to acknowledge the bare fact of his mediocrity. In order to prove that he is extraordinary, he kills two innocent people. This despicable action does not bring him glory or prove his superiority, but leads to both his physical, mental, and spiritual destruction. After much inner turmoil and suffering, he discovers that when a person transgresses the boundaries of morality and detaches himself from the rest of humanity, faith in God and faith in others is the only path to redemption.
Bardach, Janusz, and Kathleen Gleeson. Man Is Wolf to Man: Surviving the Gulag. Berkeley, CA: University of California, 1998. Print.
Solzhenitsyn believed that it was nearly impossible to have truly free thoughts under the prison camp conditions described in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, or in any situation where there is an authoritarian ruler. In a pris...
Commonly, the journey to liberty intertwines with the path of resistance. In the novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, this concept is portrayed as a social commentary as represented by the prisoners. It depicts the prisoners’ pursuit of regaining their suppressed individualities through non-violent defiance. Solzhenitsyn effectively displays the successful retention of the prisoners’ individualities through their passive resistance and survival tactics.
To further transform the Soviet Union, state officials encouraged citizens to help improve the literacy rate and recognize the many heroes of the socialist state. These heroes, including Joseph Stalin, “received huge amounts of fan mail and were lionized on appearances throughout the country” (72). They also encouraged the remaking of individuals, particularly through work. Before the transformation, many did not enjoy working, but “under socialism, it was the thing that filled life with meaning” (75). Numerous interviews an author had with “transformed” felons, illustrated that even criminals could be transformed into good citizens through work (76). However, Sheila Fitzpatrick argues that these interviews were “clearly a propaganda project.”
...e been illustrated in many events that assure his own personal morals to live a life worthy of his own actions. ¡°Somehow, even through countless years of prison life, he has maintained a sense of dignity.¡± Shukov demonstrated his integrity by attaining trust among the prisoners, a trust gained only from his previous engagements of sincere and honest deeds. Ivan¡¯s optimistic attitude motivated the others around him to perform the given tasks with a can do attitude. To a man, ones aspect of life can aspire a man to perform a great deed with a positive attitude, which Ivan had accomplished within the power plant. Ivan Denisovich¡¯s heart found sympathy for those who had suffered without a just cause for survival allowing him to remain sane throughout his sentence. His sanity was part of his meaning in life as his main goal was to live a life the best he could, and to maintain that life it was necessary for him to remain sane. Therefore the meaning in life through he eyes of Ivan Denisovich was to live a life of honesty and integrity with an optimistic attitude, allowing himself to sustain his own stature within his society while serving out his sentence as a prisoner of Communism.
In the late 1930’s while the United States was going through The Great Depression the Soviet Union was going through its own turbulent times. This would be known as the Moscow Show Trials, which took place under the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The book Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler takes place during this time period. The main character Nicholas Rubashov has been imprisoned even though he always has been loyal to the goals of the party (Koestler). This showed a shift that was happening in the country and an attempt by Stalin to eliminate any possible opposition even if they were heroes in the revolution. In the text two different concepts come to light vivisection morality where the party comes before the individual and anti-vivisection morality where the individual is sacred. Rubashov in the beginning does not embrace individualism however throughout the novel he begins to adopt individualism that he refers to as grammatical fiction. Vivisection morality is never a justifiable political system. Suppressing the rights of human beings is not only inhumane but also counter productive in creating an effective and wealthy society.
Throughout 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 Stalin's 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.
In Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky tells a story of a young man that has been forced out of his studies at a university, by poverty. In these circumstances, he develops his theory of an extraordinary man (Frank 62). This conjecture is composed of the ideas that all great men must climb over obstacles in their way to reach their highest potential and benefit human kind. In Raskolnikov's life, the great obstacle is his lack of money, and the way to get over this obstacle is to kill a pawnbroker that he knows. The victim is a rich, stingy, and heartless old crone, and by killing her, taking this evil from the world, Roskolnikov does many great deeds for mankind (Jackson 99),(Kjetsaa 182).
The novel focuses on one man, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, as he tries to survive another day in the Soviet Union with dignity and compassion. The action takes place at a prison camp in Russia in the northeastern region called Ekibastuz. The location is pounded by snow, ice and winds of appalling and shocking force during winter and lasted for many weeks. The camp is very isolated as it consists double rows of barbed wire fencing around the entire area, making sure it is fully concealed and private, so that no prisoners can escape. The conditions of the camp are very harsh. It is a union where camp prisoners have to earn their food by working hard in their inadequate clothing during the extremely cold weather. Living conditions are almost unbearable; heavy mattresses do not include sheets, as an alternative it is stuffed with sawdust, prisoners only eat two hundred grams of bread per meal and guards would force prisoners to remove their clothing for body searches at temperatures of forty below zero. The building walls are covered in dull and monotonous white paint and it was untidy and unpleasant. “It’s constant chaos, constant crowds and constant confusion” shows that ceilings are most likely coated with frost and men at the tables are packed as tight and it was always crowded. Rats would diddle around the food store, because of the incredibly unhygienic and filthy environment the camp is and it was so insanitary that some men would die from horrible diseases. “Men trying to barge their way through with full trays” suggests that the living conditions are very harsh indeed and mealtimes would be chaotic, as every famished men would be rushing to receive food. However, not only did the place cause the prisoners to suffer and lose their...
Dostoevsky's 1865 novel Crime and Punishment is the story of an expelled university student's murder of an old pawnbroker and her sister. The idealistic ex-student, Raskolnikov, is ultimately unable to live up to his own nihilistic theory of what makes a "Great Man" and, overcome by fits of morality, betrays himself to the police. Exiled to Siberia, suffering redeems the unfortunate young dreamer. Crime and Punishment is similar in many ways to Balzac's Pere Goriot, especially in respect to questions of morality. In Balzac, the master-criminal Vautrin lives by an amoral code similar to Raskolnikov's theory of Great Men--unrestrained by conscience, Vautrin holds that laws are for the weak, and those clever enough to realize this may overstep any boundaries they wish and dominate the rest of mankind. But where Balzac's characters act on this idea without repercussion, Raskolnikov makes a transgression and then begins immediately to question it. The result is a psychological inner battle between rationality and sentimental moralism which is as much a contest between Empiricism and Romanticism as it is a contest between good and evil, or God and the Devil.
Through this book, we can see his perspective towards what’s happened to him and his country at that time. We can see the symbols, motifs and strand of imagery from the book representing of the situation in Russia back then when the World War 2 happened to the people who are imprisoned. From the history we’ve all familiar with how cruel and barbaric the war was, just from what happened to all the innocent people. Now imagine what happened to those who are imprisoned for their crime. What we meant by crime was activity such as speaking up your mind, practicing your religion or having contact with
xvi Solzhenitsyn, A. I. The Gulag Archipelago, (I-II). Translated by Thomas P. Whitney. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1973, 436.
After the death of his father, Pavel, who is only a teenaged boy, joins the factory and there he learns the collective power of the proletariat. He discovers that the working class is the real agent of change in society. That leads him to a series of study circles and book-reading sessions in which like-minded, socialist workers actively take part. The studious, caring and politically aware person Pavel becomes a hero of the revolutionary circle.