Morality and Dehumanization in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

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The novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, presents moral issues, and daily dehumanization of men living in a camp in Russia in 1951. Ivan Denisovich, the protagonist in the novel spoke out against Stalin, and was then put in a prison camp because of it. The novel presents a terrible situation in which Ivan must overcome daily circumstances, which only a person living in a prison camp would know how to survive. The tone and mood of the novel are able to work together to show the theme of the novel, that human self-respect is achieved as long as one is still holding onto it.

The extract that was chosen occurs on the last page of the novel. Shukhov has just returned from being counted, and helping out another Zek, Tsezar, whose sack he had hidden. He eats a sausage, and falls asleep right away. Shukhovs day has now ended in the novel, and left the reader to ponder what exactly Solzhenitsyn was trying to show the reader. The bleak tone of the novel helps the reader understand what the author was trying to express within the novel. The tone is created through Shukhovs thoughts ...

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