One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn takes the reader through a typical day in a Soviet prison camps around 1960. The novel is written through the point of view of Ivan Denisovich (Shukhov), a poor and uneducated man. Throughout the novel the reader is exposed to the harsh treatment and environment that the inmates endured in the prison camps, which included a number-ing system, roll calls and searches, the hierarchy of prisoners, and the prison guard’s actions. These conditions seen in the prison camps served to eliminate individual personalities and privacy from the inmates, keep inmates in constant awareness of betrayal and trust in their fellow inmates, and a means of mere oppression and injustice of the prisoners.
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Similar to the social statuses people are exposed to in the outside world the same philosophy worked in the camp. Some of the prisoners maintained a position of power working for the camp, but were not well respected, like Clubfoot and other eating hall assistants. The people in higher up positions were given extra portions of food for their service, which could be seen as unfair to many prisoners.The gang bosses were well respected and worked hard to make sure their men are treated fairly, like Tyurin. There were also those ever so fortunate prisoners whom received care packages from home, like Caesar. Those who received care packages were usually envied by prisoners who did not receive care packages. Hard working peasants in the camp, like Shukhov maintained a good standing within the camps due to their hard work and effort, while they weren’t the most prosperous they managed by creating good camaraderies with the other prisoners. Also, like found in every society, were the people who lost their human dignity, resorting to scrounging and wheedling their way through life, like Fetyukov. Finally, every society has it rule enforcers, which in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, takes the form of the prison guards. Similarly to all societies, some prison guards are looser in their rule maintenance while other are extremely strict, even
Similar to the social statuses people are exposed to in the outside world the same philosophy worked in the camp. Some of the prisoners maintained a position of power working for the camp, but were not well respected, like Clubfoot and other eating hall assistants. The people in higher up positions were given extra portions of food for their service, which could be seen as unfair to many prisoners.The gang bosses were well respected and worked hard to make sure their men are treated fairly, like Tyurin. There were also those ever so fortunate prisoners whom received care packages from home, like Caesar. Those who received care packages were usually envied by prisoners who did not receive care packages. Hard working peasants in the camp, like Shukhov maintained a good standing within the camps due to their hard work and effort, while they weren’t the most prosperous they managed by creating good camaraderies with the other prisoners. Also, like found in every society, were the people who lost their human dignity, resorting to scrounging and wheedling their way through life, like Fetyukov. Finally, every society has it rule enforcers, which in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, takes the form of the prison guards. Similarly to all societies, some prison guards are looser in their rule maintenance while other are extremely strict, even