One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich & Soviet Communism

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich & Soviet Communism

Introduction

The movie, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, is based on a literary masterpiece of the same name. Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel Prize winner, is the author. Courage is hard to come by in our modern age. Solzhenitsyn serves as a perfect idol. It is not easy to mimic his success. Upon his death, he had outlived the regime that imprisoned him by two decades.

Solzhenitsyn's career as a dissident began in early 1945 (Dunkley, 1999, p. 34-43). He was an artillery captain in World War II during which he got arrested for voicing his opinion of Stalin. He spent the following eight years in prison and labor camps followed by exile in Kazakhstan. During this period he wrote One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich, published in 1962. The book describes the everyday struggle of a prisoner in Soviet prison camps.

Discussion

Main Characters

The protagonist, Shukhov, is the son of a peasant and is an unbelievable protagonist in Russian literature. Solzhenitsyn further emphasizes the character's humble origins by giving him a common Russian first name, Ivan. The author made this Shukhov the lead character as a representation of the ignorant peasants of Soviet society (Klimoff, 1997, p. 3-31). Tyurin is a tough foreman at the labor camp. The distant and terrifying authority figure changes as the story continues. He becomes more sympathetic and earns the respect of his men. Like most of the men imprisoned at the camp, he too, got unjustly imprisoned. Tsezar is the cause of envy for most of the inmates. A civilized man, he regularly receives parcels of rich foods and this consequently grants him special privileges such as eating in the camp office and wears a fur cap. Alyoshka is a righteous man. He reads from the New Testament every night. He grants favors to all without asking for anything in return.

Symbols

There are numerous symbols present in the book. These simple items hint at more than their literal meanings. Shukhov hides a spoon in his boot. The item represents his individuality; something prison systems tried to destroy. The fact that he emphatically tries to keep it hidden from the guards may mean that he is trying to cling on to his uniqueness. He does not want to become just another prisoner at the camp. He wants his identity to remain (Sauer, 2011, p 1-9). Another noteworthy symbol is bread. Privileged individuals will take bread for granted, but not a prisoner. Bread symbolizes spiritual and physical sustenance in this book. Its spirituality is signified by Alyoshka's reference and mention of it in his prayers. At the end of the book, Alyoshka urges Shukhov to forget his quest for materialism and step onto a more spiritual path instead. Shukhov hands him a biscuit he got from Tsezar. This act of sharing symbolizes that Shukhov has put his spiritual needs ahead of ...