One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich
...ause communists did not believe in the God’s existence. The prisoners were underdressed and underfed in brutal working conditions, so the prisoners had slim chance of surviving the camp for the time of their sentence. Main character in this story is prisoner S-854, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. He has endured eight years of his ten year sentence and he is very determined that he will leave the camp in two years to reunite with his wife and kids. He is very good worker, capable and sensible men. His instincts, determination, positive attitude and resourcefulness help him survive and withstand pressure in the life of prisoner camp. He works willingly and obeys orders. Ivan does not believe that he will be truly allowed to return to his family, although he already served eight years of his sentence. In the beginning of the novel one can form the picture of the prisoner camp and its cruelty. The prisoners are awakening with the sound of reveille, which produced clanging sound. “At five o’clock that morning reveille was sounded, as usual, by the blows of a hammer on a length of rail hanging up near the staff quarters” (page 3). Ivan lies in bed since he was not feeling good, but instead of being allowed to recuperate, he was punished to mop the floors in the officer’s quarter. At this point one can encounter lightly what prisoner camps looked like and what horrible conditions prisoners had to endure. Only if the temperature was 42 degrees below zero were prisoners allowed to work inside. In order to mop the floors, Ivan had to go and get water, where he had to break the ice first. This shows that whole purpose of the prisoner camps was to weaken prisoners, destroy self-confidence and possibly work the prisoners to death. Most the times people did not return from these camps. Food portions were poor and inadequate to maintain good nutritional source. Clothing was not adequate to fight freezing temperatures. Infirmary had already filled its limit the patients, so if a prisoner was ill, it could not get any help. “…The sick list has already been sent to the planning department.” (Page 17) Stalin did maintain power using these camps. The soviet laws imposed under Stalin’s rule have abolished religion and relationships. “As for the Russians, they’d forgotten which hand to cro...