Commentary of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

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The novel ‘One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich’ talks about the hardships of life that prisoners have to go through to serve their infinite sentence. The novel starts by immersing the reader into the character of Ivan Denisovich. Right from the beginning of the novel, the reader learns that life at camp is miserable, having to wake up at “five o’clock… As usual” The main theme introduced in the first pages of the novel, is the need of survival and the aim of keeping your own identity in the camp. We learn from the first pages that prisoners do not have much ‘free time’ and most of their time is spent working, “for the next ninety minutes…belonged to him” which shows how precious even ninety minutes can be and how important it is to retain each persons identity by doing whatever pleases the prisoners in that restricted period of time. The theme of being able to keep someone’s identity is crucial in the novel, and is considered very important to shukhov, “if you found a bowl with something left in it you could hardly resist licking it out.” This emphasizes that life in camp was brutal and there was a shortage of food for prisoners. This also shows a contrast and conflict between the need for survival and maintaining his identity. The theme of identity is carried out through out the book, for example shukhov’s personal spoon that he keeps in his own shoes, this separates him from the rest of the prisoners and characterizes shukhov as different which is also continued during breakfast, “he removed his cap from his shaven head – however cold it was, he wouldn’t let himself eat with his cap on” which apart from separating him to other prisoners, also demonstrates that Shukhov is a well educated person, as in our present society, eating with a cap/hat on can be considered rude or uncivilized. Survival is also a key theme throughout the book. The reader learns

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