Ivan Denisovich Individualism

One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich tells the story of Shukhov, a Russian prisoner sentenced to ten years in a Siberian camp. He is a rather individualist person who is mainly interested in surviving day by day during his confinement. Every prisoner in the camp has to learn how to behave according to this mandatory lifestyle they have been condemned to, and this is the way Shukhov finds the most bearable and efficient. There is no such thing as a unique hard moment for the prisoners or a strong event throughout the novel, which results into a very monotonous tone in the story. Everything that happens is part of their daily life, including the threats they are subjected to by the guards. Though there are a few moments which raise the expectation
of the reader, it is clear that for the prisoners they are merely something that could have happened any other day, and most important of all, something that they knew was going to happen sooner or later. Solzhenitsyn writes the story exactly as it is expected by the reader. An ordinary day in the life of an ordinary man who just like many others had been sent to the camp as a form of punishment for something they did, or someone thought they did. There is a constant morbid mood, and expectation of death. Most of the prisoners keep track of how long they had been imprisoned, and how long it is left until they are to be released. However, not all of them are looking forward to it.
The reasons why the characters had been incarcerated vary from serving milk to the enemy in the forest to political crimes or traitors, and every one of them deals with their sentence in a different way. The newest ones are usually full of life and showing off a strong personality, while those who had been in the camp for longer learn that they have to lower their voices and do whatever it takes, however they are told to do so. Some prisoners, such as Alyoshka, have God as a source of inspiration and rely strongly on religion, while others such as Shukhov not only are atheists but rely only on the laws of survival, where the brain is the number one survival tool, and most of what it takes to survive is avoiding problems. The one thing prisoners in the camp can be sure is that they cannot be sure of anything.
Each one of them knows that they can have more years added to their sentence if one of the guards is in a bad mood, and that they can be shot dead for stepping out of the line. Yet, they will do their best to behave and not do anything against the rules, hoping for the day when their sentence will be over; the day they will be released. Hope can be their ally, but as the author made clear, can also be their enemy. Hope gives them expectations from things such as a better meal, a better night of sleep, to others such as the last day they are going to spend in the camp. On the other hand, taking a realistic approach, it is always more likely that the meal is going to be worse and they will have fishes eyes if lucky, that the hours of sleep will not be enough, and that the last day they are going to spend in the camp will never come, unless they are not planning to stay alive. Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is a man who lost hope long ago. By his statement in the beginning of the novel, while cleaning the floor of the guard’s office, he makes it clear that he keeps resentment from when he was taken away from his wife, and that he misses the life he had before, as well as emphasis the fact that he has no further expectations of getting everything he lost back someday. He knows that, as a prisoner once said, when he is done with ten years he can easily be told: Here’s another ten for
you. Shukhov came to learn in the camp that surviving is a victory every day, and the future is today. To him, this is what truly matters.

Word Count: 717
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. USA: Signet Classics, 2008.
By Laís Panarello Prearo