Analysis Of Vasily Fyodorovich, By Solzhenitsyn

Solzhenitsyn shows how it is designed to attack captives physically by using the power of nature that is in essence natural, but which is also, manipulated by the guards. Solzhenitsyn communicates this by showing the natural freezing conditions in Russia, but also, how in a way, guards manipulate the temperature and the food. It is expressed that “food was in short supply in the settlement”(Solzhenitsyn, 14), and that is was never given in adequate portions, ”he, like every other prisoner, had discovered long ago that honest weight was never to be found in the bread-cutting, There was short weight in every ration. The only point was how short.”(Solzhenitsyn 24). This leads prisoners to betray each other as they live in harsh conditions and have few resources, so they need to steal other resources from convicts in order to survive, “’Vasily Fyodorovich, they’ve cheated us
But as the story lapses, Shukhov understands that is not only survival what matters, but to survive while being happy at the same time. He attempts to survive by assessing the good things that are in this dirty atmosphere that provides the prison camp. He sticks to faith, religion and a system of personal satisfaction and belief to be happy with what the few things provided. He ends up with a phrase that explains all this affair, “A day without a dark cloud. Almost a happy day.” Here he demonstrates he works and lives for his own good and not for supremacy and the Stalinist system. This is a lesson we learn as readers, were we can conclude that when we are working with others as a team or in pairs, if the other doesn’t have motivation to improve, we have to focus on ourselves if we want to be better because the other doesn’t matter in this case, we are constructing our own future, to be better and improve and constructing, as the book expresses, a “ personal belief