One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich
One day in the life of Ivan DenisovichOne day in the life of Ivan Denisovich – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
In Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s novel, One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich, the strong themes of hope and perseverance are softened by the realization that for Ivan Denisovich there is little or purpose in life. This doesn’t mean that the themes of hope and perseverance do not exist in the novel. There are numerous instances in the novel where Shukhov is filled with hope. However are these moments of hope pointless? The answer to this question may lie more on the individual human nature of the reader than in Solzhenitsyn’s writing. Whether pointless or not, Solzhenitsyn offers many instances in the novel where the themes of hope and perseverance are evident. The glimpses of hope which Ivan Denisovich sees includes the few moments after reveille that the prisoners have to themselves, respecting his fellow prisoners, taking pride in a job well done, and enjoying simple food and tobacco.
Solzhenitsyn wrote One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich so that the brutality of the Soviet labour camps is not emphasized. Instead of focusing on the brutality of the camps, Solzhenitsyn focused on one day in the life of a very ordinary prisoner. However, the fact that Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is such an ordinary man and is still able to find hope in the most menial of tasks is inspiring. Solzhenitsyn’s theme is the affirmation of character, the ability to survive in a nightmare world where moral character is the only protection of human dignity and the very conception of humanity itself is something precious and valuable. Much of the Soviet leadership despised Solzhenitsyn and his literature because he instilled within the Soviet people much of the same hope that is visible in Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. Solzhenitsyn gave hope to the Soviet people by relating his own experiences in the guise a fictional character. Solzhenitsyn uses the every-day occurrences of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov’s life to affirm his views on humanity.
Shukhov’s day began with reveille. Shukhov never slept through reveille but always got up at once. That gave him about an hour and a half to himself before the morning roll call. This short amount of time at the beginning of the day was precious because it was the only time during the day, except for a few minutes in the evening, that the prisoners had to themselves. This short amount of time provided hope for the prisoners in a number of ways. It was a time when anyone could always scrounge a little something on the side. For Ivan Denisovich Shukhov this meant doing anything from sewing a cover for his mittens out of a piece of old lining to bringing one of the gang leader’s his dry felt boots while he was still in his bunk. Tasks like these, done for his own personal satisfaction rather than the satisfaction of the gang leader’s gave Shukhov hope and reinforced his own personal self worth and confidence. On the one day which Solzhenitsyn presents, however, Ivan Denisovich does not get out of his bunk at reveille. He’d been feeling lousy since the night before–with aches, pains and shivers, and he just couldn’t manage to keep warm that night. All the time he dreaded the morning. Does Solzhenitsyn this example because Shukhov did not get out of his bed at reveille, as usual, maybe this will not be an average day in his life in the labour camps? In fact, exactly the opposite is the case. Solzhenitsyn is attempting to express that this could be one day in the life of any average prisoner with constant change and unpredictability. Ivan Denisovich is the ‘Everyman’ of the Soviet prison system. An average prisoner would not wake up every morning of his sentence feeling inspired and hopeful. Although Solzhenitsyn later depicts Ivan as a hopeful and inspired character, it would have been misleading to the themes of the novel if he had made Ivan have this persona all of the time.
While still lying in bed after reveille Shukhov decided that he would try to get himself on the sick list so he could have the day off. There was no harm in trying. His whole body was aching. This attempt to get out of working for the day proved to be futile, for only three people in the whole camp were allowed off work each day. In addition, if Shukhov had managed to get on the sick list and stay in bed all day it would not have been an accurate depiction of one day in the life of an ordinary prisoner. In Solzhenitsyn’s depiction of this ordinary day he manages to show what could be the worst morning possible for a prisoner. Ivan does not get on the sick list and he is dragged out of bed to complete the menial task of mopping a floor simply because he failed to get up at reveille. While he is mopping the floor, despite his aches and pains and the freezing cold, Shukhov is able to ponder a hopeful philosophy: There’s work and there’s ‘work’. It’s one of the two ends of the stick. If you’re working for comrades, then do a real job of it, but if you work for others, then you just go through the motions. Otherwise they’d all have kicked the bucket long ago.
The glimmers of hope are so vibrant in the morning. Solzhenitsyn outlines the integrity of his pleasant hero and shows his convictions of human worth. This morning, like the other three thousand six hundred and fifty-three mornings which Ivan Denisovich Shukhov had spent in the camp, was not perfect but instead held glimmers of hope for the future and for the day to come.
The bulk of Solzhenitsyn’s novel takes place outside the camp at a work area where Shukhov and his gang, gang 104, are building a power plant. It is during this period of work that Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is the most inspired and the most hopeful. Even at the very outset of the workday, Shukhov and the men of gang 104 were hopeful. Though they had been sitting down for barely twenty minutes, and the workday–a short winter one–went on only till six, they all thought this had been wonderful luck, and the evening didn’t seem far off now. The positive attitudes of these men is astounding. Shukhov and another prisoner, Kilgas, were first assigned to find any kind of material which would be sufficient to cover the large windows of the power plant which gang 104 was building. This was not an official task and both men had to be careful not to be caught. But the task was for the good of the gang, who worked together in a well oiled unit.
Both men were enthusiastic about their task because not only was it physical it was also mentally demanding. They had to use the miniscule resources they had to get the job done. Perseverance over the cold was also very important to successfully completing, or starting, a job. Before Shukhov and Kilgas went in search of roofing felt to cover the windows of the power plant, Shukhov made sure he had the perseverance to begin the days work. He thought to himself, never mind how hard it was to begin the workday in such freezing cold, the thing was to get over the beginning–that was the important part. After setting himself in the right frame of mind Ivan Denisovich Shukhov had one more thing to do before he would go off with Kilgas in search of the roofing felt. He needed to find his special trowel. Shukhov knew that after he and Kilgas had covered the windows of the power plant it would be their job to lay bricks. For Shukhov, his special trowel was both a symbol of joy. Shukhov was a skilled man. A lack of skilled labour in the camps made any man with any skill whatsoever a commodity. When he had been free he had been a carpenter. Therefore, he knew which tools he would work with best. Also, by hiding his special trowel every night, Shukhov was able to have something which was completely his. In the camps, ownership of anything was a rare and special occurrence. Shukhov rolled away a small stone and stuck his fingers in a crack. There it was! He pulled it out. Such hope and joy from a tool is incomprehensible to the modern reader. It would be hard to imagine how a small tool could bring so much hope and joy to one individual.
It is not only tools from which Ivan Denisovich is able to find hope but people as well. Once inside the power plant, a young prisoner named Gopchik comes to Ivan Denisovich and asks him if he will teach him how to make a spoon out of aluminum wire, after examining one Shukhov has already made he is impressed. Ivan then reflects upon his feelings for Gopchik and comes to some realisations about humanity: Ivan Denisovich liked this little rascal Gopchik. They gave him the same sentence an adult got. He was friendly, like a baby animal, and tried to please everybody. But he could be sly too. He received packages and ate them all by himself, at night, when no one else was watching. But to think of it, why should he feed everybody? Why should he be like the others that traded pieces of food for an extra favour, a place in the line at meal times or a spot in the mail que? Shukhov does not get any food from this young boy’s packages but he doesn’t feel any hostility although he is constantly starving himself. Ivan Denisovich respects this young boy and possibly even lives vicariously through his youthfulness.
The fact that Ivan Denisovich respects this young boy is remarkable in the harsh conditions of the camp. Shukhov respects others because he is content in his situation and respects himself. Ivan Denisovich is a survivor, not because he will steal from or inform on his fellow prisoners, but because he has retained his self-respect and human dignity. Shukhov also has a great deal of sympathy for Senka Klevshin. According to all accounts Senka had really been through the mill. Most of the time he didn’t talk. He couldn’t hear what people were saying and usually kept his mouth shut. Therefore, the other prisoners did not know much about him. All they knew was that he had been in Buchenwald and was in the camp underground there. He had smuggled arms in for an uprising. Then the Germans hung him up with his arms tied behind his back and beat him. Shukhov is always kind to Senka. He explains things to him when he can not hear and is generally helpful. Almost all of the prisoners displayed this kind of humanitarianism when it came to helping Senka because they all knew that someday they might be in the same situation. Shukhov’s character is radiated by his belief in humanity and by the ease in which he establishes this human contact.
The most hopeful part of the entire day for Ivan Denisovich was during the period of hard labour when he worked laying a brick wall with Kilgas in the power plant. Ivan Denisovich does an honest day’s work on his work detail. Shukhov took pride in his work and did not take kindly to those who did not. Shukhov said that he didn’t know the man who’d worked on it in his place before, but that guy sure didn’t know his job. He’d messed it up. It was moments like these that Ivan Denisovich lived for. To make a wall out of brick and mortar was the closest thing to art that anyone in the camps would ever create. Art gave people hope. The construction of the brick wall gave Shukhov hope. He took pride in the wall; he was now getting used to the wall like it was his own. Even after the work day was finished Shukhov still kept working, just so he didn’t waste the last of the mixed mortar, so he could be satisfied in the fact he had completed a day’s work. He took tremendous pride in his work. He was pleased. “Not bad, eh, for one afternoon’s work?”. Not only did Shukhov take pride in his own work but others took pride in what he was capable of as well. This was inspirational for Ivan Denisovich. The leader of gang 104 asked, what the hell are we going to do without you when you’ve served your time? We’ll all be crying our hearts out for you.
By portraying one day in the live of Ivan Denisovich in such a positive light, Solzhenitsyn is symbolically representing the Soviet system. The novel’s portrayal of one good day in the life of a typical prisoner shows a reversal of socialism, which Solzhenitsyn underrates by referring to the prisoners through the consciousness of Ivan Denisovich while regarding the prison personnel and government officials impersonally as he does. Therefore, Solzhenitsyn’s use of style is also responsible for emphasizing the theme of hope in the novel.
Food also gave Ivan Denisovich Shukhov hope. Time in the camp was not measured by days or by hours or by minutes but by meals. To Shukhov the time between meals could seem an eternity if there was nothing else to occupy his mind. Shukhov had come to the realization that to enjoy the time he had eating his food he had to concentrate on nothing else but the food. He had to give all his time to eating. He would scrape the last of the food from the bottom of the bowl and put it carefully in his mouth. He unlike others would not lick the remains from other people’s bowls, he knew he would survive without it, for it showed a lack of hope to eat from another’s bowl. Shukhov would do favours for others with the small chance of getting a food reward. When the gang returned from their work detail, Shukhov saved a place in line for the captain so that he would be able to take his time reading the list to see if he had a package. If there was no package then Shukhov would get no other thanks. However, on this one day Shukhov’s humanitarianism paid off, once again the captain rewarded Shukhov by giving him his meal and a few items from his package. He would not eat it all at once but hid it for a later time. For he would have had to eat it quickly, and from experience Shukhov knew that eating food quickly was just as good as throwing it away.
Situations like these gave Ivan Denisovich Shukhov a great deal of hope. Apart from the hopefulness of Ivan Denisovich and his good-natured cunning self, we feel in him a man of goodwill whose spirit is not filled with bitterness, despite the crying injustice of his punishment and despite, too, the inhuman conditions of life in the so called corrective labour camp. Often, after eating, Shukhov would find hope and comfort in smoking a cigarette. This, however, was not an easy task. Tobacco was a very rare and precious commodity in the camps. While gang 104 was working at the power plant Shukhov had had the desire to smoke and had borrowed just enough tobacco. Later in the day, after Shukhov had saved the captains place in line and had eaten his dinner, he went and spent two precious rubles on a small amount of tobacco. Shukhov’s generosity, humanitarianism and hope is displayed when he pulled out his pouch. He took out as much tobacco as he’d borrowed earlier that day, reached it over to the Estonian in the top bunk across from him, and said thanks. The fact that so much pleasure and joy is derived from food and tobacco makes Ivan Denisovich Shukhov a very hopeful character.
Solzhenitsyn presents the reader with an average day in the life of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. A day remarkably similar to the other three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days which Shukhov has spent in the forced labour camp. This day was filled with small glimpses of hope. Are these glimpses of hope pointless due to the fact that if Shukhov does serve his ten years the camp will simply add another ten or maybe twenty-five years to his sentence? No, of course that is not the case. Whether, Shukhov spends the rest of his life in that camp or not, he has found a way to find pleasure and hope in the most brutal and difficult of situations. Therefore, the theme of hope in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is not undercut by the fact that Shukhov’s very existence may be meaningless.
This was Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s first book, this novel is one of the most forceful, artistic examples of political oppression in the Stalin-era Soviet Union. It is a simply told story of a typical, gruelling day as an inmate in a forced-labour camp in Siberia. The novel is a brutal depiction of life and a moving tribute to man’s triumph of will over relentless dehumanisation. From the icy blast of reveille through the sweet release of sleep, Ivan Denisovich endures. A common carpenter and mason, he is one of millions viciously imprisoned for countless years on baseless charges, sentenced to the waking nightmares of the Soviet work camps in Siberia. Even in the face of degrading hatred, where life is reduced to a bowl of gruel and a rare cigarette, hope and dignity prevail. This powerful novel is an affirmation of his human spirit.
Solzhenitsyn himself was imprisoned for nearly a decade as punishment for making insulting statements about Stalin in a letter to a friend.
After having been exiled many years before, Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for literature, but declined the opportunity to collect the award because of his apprehension to how his previously fellow citizens would treat him.