Summary: One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich

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“Recouping Identification”

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. Solzhenitsyn accentuates the camp prisoners’ ability to gain individuality through passive resistance. He portrays the discrete distinctiveness of the inmates through their possession of a contraband. This is evident with the protagonist, Shukhov, who stealthily carries a personalised spoon with him. As a result, every time he eats dinner, “Shukhov pull[s] out his spoon out of his boot...He’d made it himself from aluminum wire and cast it in sand. And he’d scratched on it: ‘Ust-Izhma,1944’ ” (Solzhenitsyn 12). He becomes very fond of his self-made spoon that he carries it with him everywhere. The possession of a contraband within the gulags

He portrays the uniqueness of the inmates as a result of them safeguarding their belongings, retaining their human traits and resorting to religion for mental strength. He emphasizes the need to assiduously understand the system within the gulags by preserving physical strength where possible, upholding dignity and understanding the hierarchical order of the camps. The author shows that through these passive forms of resistance, prisoners can ultimately triumph in these unsurvivable situations. Thereby pertaining to the fact that the pursuit of freedom comes harmoniously with the formation of