1.  Book Report:   "The Last Dictators"   -   Biography
2.  Book Report:  " One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich "  

Author	Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Publisher	E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc.
Copyright Date	1963
Number of Pages	158

 

1. Explain in your own words the theme of the book !

The book I chose to do my book report on is "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich". The book is about the most forceful indictments of political oppression in the Stalin era Soviet Union. It is a captiving story about the life in a Siberian labor camp, related to the point of view of Ivan Denisovich, a prisoner. It takes place in a span of one day, "from dawn till dusk" (pg. 111) . This book also describes his struggles and emotional stress that he must going through.
 

3. Describe the time and settings of the story !

This book explains a single day in Ivan Denisovichs live in a Siberian prison camp. The story is taking place during Joseph Stalin’s Red Terror program between 1945 and 1953. But I think this specific day is in no case different from any other ones of his possible 25 year prison term.
 

5. List in chronological order the five most important events in 
    the  story !

Actually the story does not have a clear plot, but it describes each event of one day. Unordinary seems to be ordinary. By using each specific detail, he enables the reader to get a reliable visual picture. It’s a review of a day in a prison camp. And especially orders play an important rule in a prisoners life. It begins with  "‘Sleep’s over’ " (pg. 37), after that "the escort began shouting: ‘ Get a move on ! ‘ (pg. 41)". The prisoners must work "11 hours" inside a power station, "slapping in some […] mortar" (pg. 95). This punishment is being interrupted by "magara […] that damned ‘Chinese’ oatmeal " (pg. 29). Finally in the evening the prisoner must "bear in the icy wind" (pg. 123), while the guards are looking for a Moldavian Fugitive. At the end some couple of hours remain until 22:00 for the prisoners own life.
 

6. Compare and contrast the qualities that make up the character of the protagonist with those of the antagonists ? Use examples !

Shukhov, alias Ivan Denisovich is the protagonist in the book. He is instructing his squad 104th and serving as a squad leader. "Shukhov know how to manage anything. When you worked for the knowing you gave them quality, […] (else) an eyewash " (pg. 26). And " That’s what a squad (leader) is. A guard can’t get people to […] work […], but a squad leader can tell his men to get on with the job, […] and they’ll do it. Because he’s the one who feeds them." (pg. 90). That’s why Shukhov, but essentially for the benefits of his people, represents the man who gives orders and pushes his squad. Because their survival depends on Shukovs ability that their work is being honored in order to get enough food et cetera.
 

7. List five of the most important decisions […] !

One of Shukovs most fatal errors is his escape from German captivity and returning to the Red Army (pg. 18 ff). Because of "Mister Whiskers", a slang word, used to fool power ruler Joseph Stalin, (pg. 141) bitter sarcasm Shukov has been deported to a prison camp for "treason" his country as a spy. I remember the Fugitive Slave Act, where for instance Whites (for conspiracy) can be imprisoned by their own race. 
By the way Shukov saves his life by committing this crime and instead of being executed he is sent to the camp (pg. 18 ff). Besides he decides as a squad leader that his people should work more than expected in order get bigger food rations. That has given him appreciation from his own squad. Finally he set an example to his people and strengthen their moral and motivation. 
 

10. Diary
Speech of Joseph Stalin in 1938 - published in the Pravda

What is better for Russia ?  For centuries now we have seen how traitors, mostly members of the Borgoseie, had exploited the working class of our People’s Union. Corruption, Perjury, Lying were only some tools of these people.  Now, two decades after the glorious Russian revolution the Bolschewiki are being threaten by this people again, hiding in our People’s Army. That’s why our nation should send this people to places and conditions, where they themselves had sent the proletarians not less than fifty years ago  -  to a surrounding where they should learn what working really means.

Additional Comment in late 1941
The recalcitrant German Nation under Hitler wants to destroy all, what we have built up in the last quarter century. Now the first ambassadors of the devil were already sent to our heartland - spies.
 

9. Would you recommend this book ?

I am reading this book for my junior year English class, and it doesn’t really compare to a lot of other (too fictionals) novels I have read. It is a type of book that one time have begun to read you can’t put it down until you have finished it. The novel shows me how everyone who is uttering Stalin’s name in wrong ways was sent to the labor camps (Read Stalin’s Diary from 1938 and 1941 and find out, how he justifies his crimes ! ) to enter humiliation, freezing cold and extremely hard work. Millions of  "zecks" (work camp prisoners) were like Shukhov. They are all looking for a bit privacy and dignity, or probably some smoke. He is trying to make the best of it.
Originally I thought this book would be a waste of time, but it turned out that it was very interesting and everyone should read it.
 

11. Do I want to have a Character of the book as my friend ?

In the end the story the author is describing the hours of the days "after they marched to work" (pg. 116). Shukhov "smuggled that bid of hackswa through (and) […] he’d bought that tobacco" (pg. 158). Probably he won’t be an appropriate friend for me, but these are the only spots in the novel, where Chukhov is showing his "funny" respectively human side. And a real friend must show me also his unofficial character, for instance the little "Mephisto" seems to appear from dusk till dawn after his "Faust" rule in the daytime as squad leader. But of course he ought to be a broken after eight years in prison and as an captive of the Germans -  he is really also mentally very strong.
 

12. The most difficult moment for Shukhov ?   (pg. 125)

Shukhov has "strictly forbidden his wife to send him " "parcels", because "he wrote […] Don’t take the food out of the kid’s mouth (and) […] he knew […] that his family wouldn’t be able to keep it up for ten years. […] But […] every time […] someone […] received a parcel […] his heart ached because there wasn’t one for him." Shukhovs struggle must have been enormous, but despite his family living thousands of kilometers in probably poor conditions away from him, he is surviving mentally this term. I would  give up completely all my hope and would die in this camp.
 

14. My favorite episode

Alexander Solzhenitsyn knows very well how to create an exciting and wonderful visual picture of the nature in the reader’s mind. "One chills to the 17°-below-zero cold of Siberia" or "the peaks her highest stand" are only some sentences, describing the landscape. I really like to analyze the Russian winter, which is sometimes ironically very sunny and dry, but at the same time bitter cold. Especially, when the stars are shining the frost gets more and more into our skin.
(Un)Fortunately here in Western Washington our winters are in average more wetter and milder. 
 

Requirements:
done:        1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14         =  10
skipped:   2, 4, 8, 13                                        =   4