One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn exposes somewhat of his gulag experiences by telling the story of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov as a prisoner. He decided to focus not on the subjection carried out on the camps but on the human experience. This is a novel about work, happiness, loneliness and everything else. A prisoner gets to establish himself as an inhabitant after he’s alienated from society. He creates a new home for himself after years and years of adaptation. He is forced to forget everything that binds him towards his old life in such a way that his old self is now unknown to him.

Emotionless and soulless faces fill the gulag. Those that have been able to face their new reality seem to be happy in their own way but some that haven’t been able to grasp their bittersweet existence are tormented for life. Ivan Denisovich is one of the first type. He found a new life and takes pride in his work. He gets happy over the small triumphs in his monotonous life and he has dissected the rope that held him from his family. The prisoner is institutionalized and the cage is now everything for him. He doesn’t know anything but jail. It’s just the small decodification of one’s values and habits into new ones that at first seemed to be troublesome but that now seem to be alluring and even dominated nonchlantly. Work used to be a burden for Shukhov, but now it’s a way of living his life. He successfully converted the rock into gold that continues to enrich his otherwise unbearable life.

This is not a story about “the meaning of life” but to find purpose in any pit we’re thrown into. The human is a natural at adapting to new stimuli and precisely that adaptation is what undermines the way we survive our reality.

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