One_Day_in_the_Life_of_Ivan_Denisovich_-_Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn

Although this novel has been created to present an impression of reality, it is as carefully constructed as feature articles and expository texts. Even though the novel “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” presents a version of reality, it must not only engage and appeal to the reader but “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” also has a main purpose. The main purpose of this novel is to provide the reader with an insight into the history of Soviet Russia. This has been achieved by the use of symbols, motifs, themes and characters. This is evident in the novel “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” where the author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, has used these and many other techniques to not only appeal to and engage his readers, but also to provide his audience with an insight to the history of Soviet Russia. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has constructed this novel out of his own experiences. This is evident in the novel techniques listed above where Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has linked his personal context to create characters, symbols, motifs and themes that relate to his own experiences and the history of Soviet Russia. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn the author of “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” has created characters that reflect and represent people from our society. He has done this to allow us to relate to and create different views upon the different characters in this novel. The characters in this novel all have different roles and illustrate the extreme conditions ordinary people like you and I faced whilst in the Russian camps. Fetyukov is a great example of this. He is a fellow prisoner, who is seen as the scrounger of gang 104. If we were to be placed in his situation, we would do anything to survive even if this was to cost us our human dignity. All the characters created by Solzhenitsyn in this novel represent different people in our society, just as the symbols used represent different ideas and concepts. Symbols have been used in the novel “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” to represent different ideas. The symbols assist us to acknowledge the values that are recognized in different cultures. In this novel Shukov’s spoon symbolises the control and power that the camp officials hold. The spoon that shukov hides represents individuality. The spoon symbolises how each prisoner must hideaway the special and unique part of themselves in the camps atmosphere of impersonal officialdom and dehumanization. Shukov’s spoon allows us to grasp a deeper meaning of the control and power in these Russian camps. The government controles everything and if the prisoners did not attempt to empower themselves, as shukov did through his spoon, there was no human control what so ever. “Since then it’s been decreed that the sun is highest at one o’clock”, “who decreed that'”, “the soviet government”. This quote emphasizes the control and power the government held. It implies that the soviet government believes itself all-powerful. The Russian government surely plays the role of the antagonist in this novel; you can also classify the motif of the cold as another antagonist in the novel “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”. The cold, this motif has assisted to develop and inform the readers of the text’s major themes. The cold is a physical aspect that manages the camp. Shukov is not only a political prisoner but he along with all the other prisoners, are also prisoners to the Siberian cold. They are not only battling the government but they are also fighting against the freezing conditions, they are battling against the world. For shokuv and his fellow prisoners to survive they need to take into account, recognise, respect and embrace the harsh conditions they face. “Body searches that would be humiliating in the best of climates are physically torturous in temperatures of forty degrees below zero. Wearing ratty prison clothes would be degrading enough for the inmates even in summer, but wearing them in the biting Siberian winter makes constant suffering a part of their prison sentence.” The will to survive against these conditions are large and therefore in some cases the prisoners lose their humanity as a cost to survive. Themes in the novel “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” is a fundamental universal idea that we can all relate to. The struggle for human dignity. The Stalinist labour camp in which shukov is imprisoned is designed to attack its prisoner’s physical and spiritual dignity. The Living conditions are almost intolerable and the struggle to survive is huge. The government is trying to dehumanize the prisoners. However shukov does not passively accept this attempt to dehumanize him. “ next, he removed his cap from his shaven head – however cold it was, he wouldn’t let himself with his cap on” this practice, a holdover from his upbringing, gives shukov a sense that he is behaving in a civilized manner. This quote shows shukov’s struggle for dignity despite the degradation of the camp life. In all of these techniques aleksandr has used he has linked his personal experiences and context to establish a relationship between himself and his theme, characters, motif, and symbols. All these novel techniques have been used by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to create a novel “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” with a meaning and purpose. This novel has assisted its audience to grasp a deeper understanding of life, the meaning of life, and most importantly the struggle to survive living under the power of the Soviet Russian Government.