1984

1984 Summary The morning reveille, a hammer banging against a length of rail, is sounded at five o'clock. The wake-up call is particularly short, because it is cold, and the campguard does not want to stay outside for long. It is still pitch-black when Ivan Denisovich Shukhov gets up. Shukhov almost never oversleeps, since by waking up early he can have ninety minutes of free time before the prisoners assemble to go to work. He earns money during this time by sewing mittens, bringing prisoners their valenki (felt boots), sweeping the warehouses, or collecting dishes from the mess halls. The men who collect dishes sometimes receive bits of food, but Shukhov is careful to resist eating the leftover food from the bowls. His first squad leader said that the men who don't survive are those that lick leftovers, count on the doctors to cure them, and squeal on others. Looking back on his words, Shukhov disagrees about the squealers, because many men have saved themselves by turning others in. Usually Shukhov rises at reveille, but today he feels feverish. He lies in bed listening to his squad waking up and going about their morning duties. He listens to the shukhov, prisoners, out, one, squad, time, ivan, food, camp, men, knows, being, about, work, valenki, outside, back, waking, vdovushkin, tiurin, themselves, tells, tartar, life, going, already, temperature, summary, since, same, pavlo, numbers, morning, hears, guard, even