One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Analysis Essay

Joseph Stalin strategically came into cater in communist Russia in the 1930s. Within just a few years, he turned Russia from a communist state into a totalitarian dictatorship. Few people chose to pronounce out against Stalin, besides those who did were put into Siberian work camps or gulags. horse parsley Solzhenitsyn was one of the few t get into chose to speak out against Stalin and his totalitarian regime. He utilize his years in the work camps to illustrate a vivid personation of what camp life was care in his book, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. The reinvigorated is a criticism against Stalins collectivism, and is a translation on why a communistic system will never work. Three of the biggest ways the novel critiques collectivism are by attempting to put d have got Russian society, displaying forms of unjust punishment, and arguing the importance of conviction.Solzhenitsyn propagates the radical idea that communism doesnt work. Communism is the idea that e veryone in society receives relate shares of the benefits resulting from dig out. It teaches the short(p) to rise up and attain financial and social status equal to that of the middle-class. In order for everyone to be on the uniform level, wealth is redistri simplye so the members of the upper class are brought d declare to the same financial and social level as the middle class (Coffin 660-665). In theory, communism is presented as to be a utopia where everyone has adequate food and shelter but in the novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, it is solve communism in utilisation is very different from communism in ideology. The communism Solzhenitsyn presents in this novel actually tries to run away any(prenominal) form of gracious dignity. The story takes place in a Russian prison camp after World War II. The protagonist is a man telephoned Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, but referred to as Shukhov for most of the novel.The author refers to Ivan as Shukhov to emphasise t he how the camp sets him at a cold, authoritative distance. Ivan is Shukhovs first yell and Denisovich is his patronym, a name that is derived from ones fathers name. In Russian society, addressing someone by his or her first name and patronymic is cordial but respectful. The early Soviet Communist regime tested to stub out this form of address because the respect it entails suggested class differences among people, something communism seeks to destroy. On the different hand, addressing someone by his or her break down name has an official meaning. The Soviet manner of addressing people as Comrade followed by their last name was an attempt to replace the old way of addressing someone with a new one better adapted to a class-free nation.Even in the camp they were polite to people and addressed them by their full name (Solzhenitsyn 26). The prison camp workers always addressed each other with the same degree of respect in order to preserve each others dignity. The wear camp in which Ivan is imprisoned is designed to conquer and dehumanize its captives. The living conditions are simply unbearable. The mattresses do not declare sheets, prisoners share tiny portions of bread and porridge per meal, and the guards force the prisoners to undress in pigboat zero temperatures for body searches.The camp replaces the prisoners names with garner and number to erase all hints of individuality, S 854three age penalization work, says the new warden to, Ivan as punishment for not getting up on time (Solzhenitsyn 7-8). The camp gives everyone numbers and makes them all dress identically take away their identities, from the outside, everyone in the squad sideed the same- their black coats were identical-but within the squad at that place were great distinctions (Solzhenitsyn 15).However, Denisovich does not accept the camps attempts to dehumanize him. He shows maintaining human dignity does not have to be achieved through violent rebellion but kinda, through de veloping a system of personal rules. For example, at meal time, no matter the conditions, he always removes his cap before eating, hence he removed his hat from his clean-shaven head- however cold it capacity be, he could never bring himself to eat with his hat on (Solzhenitsyn 16). From his childhood, this practice gives Ivan a sense that he is behaving in a civilized manner.No matter how famished he becomes, he never stoops to Fetyukovs level, mendicancy for scraps. He scorns Fetyukovs behavior, which he believes is cruel. Ivan may be treated like an animal by the Soviet camp system, but he subtly fights back and refuses to submit. In one instance, Shukhov is tempted to ask a fellow prisoner for a cigarette which the other man has already half smoke-dried but, but he would never lower himself he would never look at a mans mouth (Solzhenitsyn 27).Ivan never allows the labor camp to get the best of him but gets punished for things one in his control on top of being imprisoned. Another criticism of communism passim the novel is the description of unjust punishment upon the prisoners. In the starting signal of the novel, Shukhov does not get up on time because he is grisly and is then threatened with three days in the hole. Similarly, Buynovsky receives ten days in the hole for trying to bundle up against the cold with a flannel vest. Neither Shukhovs illness nor Buynovskys attempt to go along warm harm anyone, but the camp treats both as unforgiving violations of the law, worthy of severe punishment. Such harsh punishment for such piffling offenses is absurd. These men are already locked into arduous prison sentences, heaping on foul and illogical punishment upon them is just a brutal exercise of power by the guards. Through this unjust treatment one thing that attend the prisoners survive was having faith in something whether it is a strict moral encipher or faith in god.One of the main goals of communism was to eradicate religion from society. A ccording to the founders of communism religion hinders societal progress it was Marx who utter religion is the opium of people. Solzhenitsyn implies it is much easier to get through hardships with faith in something rather than without. During a march, Shukhov thinks of Alyosha, the devout Baptist, he wonders, What had he to be happy some? His cheeks were sunken, he lived strictly on his rations, and he earned nothing. He worn out(p) all his Sundays with the other Baptists. They shed the hardships of camp like water (Solzhenitsyn 38). Shukhov is fashioning the point when you believe in something, like religion, it is much easier to keep a positive attitude and survive a terrible situation.Although Ivan does not identify religion for most of the novel, his final conversation with Alyoshka, reveals faith can be a means of survival in the oppressive camp system. Ivan adheres to a strict set of rules, like always taking off his hat before eating or trying to waste as poor as possi ble. Alyoshka, has faith in god and the human spirit for my let out I am not ready merely to be skip but even to die for the name of the Lord Jesus (Solzhenitsyn 163), this translation really affects Shukhov to a point where he begins to reflect on his own philosophy. Shukhovs s sense of inner peace in the novels last paragraph, which resembles Alyoshkas sense of inner peace throughout the novel, demonstrates that religious faith offers strength in the face of difficulty.Having any character of faith can carry someone through hardship, religious faith is simply one type of such a faith. Though the labor camps were filled with suffering and misery, the men continued to exhibit acts of humanity in their day to day lives. The only way these men could have survived this inhuman treatment was by subtly fighting the system in their own personal way. Solzhenitsyn uses three simple yet powerful ideas the dehumanization of the human society, displays of unjust punishment, and the importa nce of having faith in no matter how afflictive the situation is, to speak out against Stalin and the terrible consequences of Russian communism.Works CitedCoffin, Judith G., and Robert C. Stacey. Hesperian Civilizations Their History & Culture. impertinently York, NY W. W. Norton, 2008. Print.Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Isaevich. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. New York Dutton, 1963. Print.