Summary Of One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich

ITING

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn revolves around one man's experience in a Soviet labor prison camp and how he deals with the many hardships he faces there. This prison camp is particularly harsh: prisoners must work nonstop, survive in cold conditions with minimal food, and deal with dehumanization and a lack of freedom. In many ways, four years at a modern day high school may feel like a forced prison sentence in a Soviet gulag: students feel hopeless, lost, and exhausted by their workloads. This common situation is magnified when a new student arrives at New Trier High School, a school known for its stressful, competitive environment and massiveness in both size and student population. However,
New Trier is known across the globe for its intensive curriculum, competitive environment, and ambitious students who strive to excel. Students, especially new students who have not yet been exposed to the rigorous approach to education that the North Shore employs, can often find themselves lost due to demand of tests, projects, and assignments. This can cause one to feel like they are lost in a robotic, monotonous, never-ending cycle of work where they feel that they are simply not working for their own learning, but rather for the grades scrawled at the top of their papers. Shukov also faces the arduous task of working in a Soviet labor prison camp, where the common reaction would be to feel like one is not working for themselves, only the Soviets. Yet, Shukov knows that he cannot get out of this work, and so he considers this required labor as a challenge rather than a burden to get through it. He works with discipline and ingenuity. As a result, the satisfaction that he gains from his accomplishments gives him happiness and excitement which help to get him through life in such a harsh prison camp. A new student could adapt Shukov's attitude towards work into their own academic lives at New Trier. Instead of letting the work overpower oneself, one could instead look at the challenging academics of New Trier as an opportunity to grow and learn. They could view their
He wants to contribute to his group in a meaningful way so that he deserves the food that he is given. Many men aren't like this, and their morality is tampered with by their experiences in prison. While Shukov survives by working hard to earn his rations, many ken instead survive by stealing or squealing from others. In the beginning of the novel, Shukov reflects upon advice that his first squad leader, Kuziomin gave him: "'Here, men, we live by the law of the taiga. But even here people manage to live. The ones who don't make it are those who lick other men's leftovers, those who count on the doctors to pull them through, and those who squeal on their buddies'" (Solzhenitsyn 4). Most of these men are good at heart, but are changed by the prison to do things they wouldn't normally do. As a result, these people don't survive because they can no longer tolerate suffering and instead must do things that are morally wrong to survive. On the contrary, those who stay true to their morality and don't steal or squeal in order to get ahead may suffer by not getting as much food that day. However, in the long run they will be better off because they have stuck to what they believed in and are now internally stronger for it. Additionally, Shukov's ability to stick to his true character and avoid being changed by prison has connected him to a part of his previous life and