Readings on One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

by Medina, Loreta

• ISBN13: 9780737705645
• ISBN10: 0737705647
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-09-01
• Publisher: Greenhaven Pr

Summary

A thematic examination of Solzhenitsyn's novel offers a biographical overview of the author, critical essays by varied experts, and a discussion of concurrent historical events.

Table of Contents

Foreword	11	(13)
Introduction	13	(3)
A Biography	16	(11)
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Characters and Plot	27	(7)
Themes in One Day
A Quest for Truth, Justice, and Charity	34	(8)
Helene Zamoyska
Solzhenitsyn portrays the agonizing living conditions in the prison camp: extreme cold, hunger, hard labor, and tyrannical guards. The author reserves his sympathy for the prisoners and his contempt for the guards and camp administrators as well as Soviet bureaucrats
Moral Choices and Small Victories	42	(9)
Steven Allaback
The author mines the consciousness of Shukhov and finds lessons there for everyone: awareness of one's condition, making choices, relishing small victories, and taking care of one's self while being compassionate to others. Departing from the common picture of Shukhov as a simple, practical man. Allaback portrays him as a complex individual perpetually balancing between presering his dignity and groveling for crumbs
Work as Redemption	51	(7)
Oliver Clement
Clement looks at how Ivan Denisovich's act of laying down one brick on top of another to build a wall nourishes his soul. Clement contends that Solzhenitsyn views work as a means of achieving spiritual awareness
One Day, a Modern Epic	58	(4)
Robert Porter
Porter argues that the novel succeeds because of its universality. Shukhov and the other characters are mostly peasants and are semiliterate, which contributes to their credibility. Despite the dehumanizing conformity of their lives, however, the characters retain their individuality
The Character of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov
Shukhov Is Vital to Understanding Solzhenitsyn	62	(8)
Edward E. Ericson Jr.
The camp imprisons Shukhov's body but not his spirit. He finds satisfaction in his work; his creative effort gives him self-validation. As long as Shukhov can do his work, have his share of gruel, and smoke a cigarette stub, he is almost happy at the end of the day
Shukhov, the Quintessential Survivor	70	(5)
Terrence Des Pres
The survivor is the man who has ``life-inspired stubbornness,'' a quality that Shukhov definitely possesses. He not only survives but also flourishes by finding whatever satisfaction he can in his life in the prison camp
Shukhov and His Peasant Virtues	75	(7)
Christopher Moody
Moody traces Shukhov's roots in Russian literature to the nineteenth-century writers who idealized the Russian peasant. They often portrayed the peasant as a model of wisdom, dignity, and simplicity. In One Day, Solzhenitsyn retains the peasant's simplicity, dignity, and wisdom, but he also adds something more: agility and some amount of guile
One Day: Form and Style
Narrative Style and Plot Structure	82	(11)
Richard Luplow
The merging of the narrator's voice with that of Shukhov's gives unity and authenticity to the narrative. Of equal importance to developing the novel's themes is Solzhenitsyn's carefully constructed plot. Richard Luplow disagrees with the view of some critics that One Day is almost plotless. He maintains that the novel's plot lies in the contrast between the harrowing life in the camp and Shukhov's small victories
Popular Speech: Toward Simplicity and Significance	93	(6)
Leonid Rzhevsky
By delving deep into the speech and thoughts of an ordinary camp worker, Solzhenitsyn achieves directness and sincerity in his narrative. The folksiness of the language helps relieve the dreariness of the scenes of camp life
Politics and One Day
One Day's Publication Was a Political Decision	99	(9)
Zhores A. Medvedev
Medvedev, a scientist who had close ties to the editors of Novy Mir, recounts how Solzhenitsyn's expose of the prison camp system in Stalinist Russia passed the scrutiny of Communist officialdom: first Nikita Khrushchev and then the Central Committee of the Communist Party
Solzhenitsyn's Prison Experience	108	(9)
David Burg
George Feiser
Solzhenitsyn drew material for his novels from his own life in prison. This account of Solzhenitsyn's experiences clearly suggests that One Day was based on his stay in a prison camp. While in the camp, he was joined by thousands of other prisoners---intellectuals, former military officers, laborers, and students
Readers' Responses to One Day	117	(12)
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
After the publication of One Day, Solzhenitsyn received countless letters from all kinds of readers---prisoners, guards, officers, and others---sharing with the author how the novel had touched them or misrepresented them. Many found the novel telling their own stories, claiming they were the people on whom certain characters were based
Solzhenitsyn Comments on His Work	129	(9)
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Nikita Struve
Solzhenitsyn has often lamented his being referred to as a political figure. Although he readily acknowledges the effects of prison and internal exile on his work, Solzhenitsyn points to earlier Russian writers as being influential on his writing
Chronology	138	(6)
For Further Research	144	(5)
Index	149