In the play "The Cherry Orchard," by Anton Checkov, and the novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn,

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        In the play “The Cherry Orchard,” by Anton Checkov, and the novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the main characters were faced with a change in their life that they had to either accept or deny.  Madame Ranevsky, the main character in “The Cherry Orchard” decided to deny the change that she was faced with and to live her life as she always had.  Ivan Denisovich, the main character of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s novel, adapted to his change to save his life.  The situations in which the characters lived in influenced the way these two characters adapted to change.  This essay will discuss the adaptations to change, the reasoning behind the Madame Ranevksy’s decision to not accept the change in her life, and Ivan Denisovich’s reasoning to why he had to adapt in order to live.

        During the play “The Cherry Orchard,” Madame Ranevsky seemed to be in her own world.  She did not want to accept the fact that her family was going through a social change and that they were now poor.  Along with her refusal to accept the change, she also reacted to change by running away from everything.  In the beginning of the play Madame Ranevsky was coming home from Paris where she was for five years.  She went to Paris after her husband passed away and son, Grisha, “drowned in the river, only seven”  She was running away from the pain that the two deaths, which were only a month apart.  She ran away to forget her past and even though she came back, she still wanted to find a way to forget her it.  Her comment, “if I could forget the past,” showed the reader that she would prefer to run away from her problems and to forget all of the pain and horror that she had had in her life instead of dealing with the pain and the hurt and recovering from it.  Even after five years she still cried for her son, “My Grisha…my boy…Grisha…my son…my boy was lost…drowned.  Why?”  Even though everyone is talking about a different subject in this scene, she seemed to not be paying attention, as though she was in her own world, remembering the past and never forgetting.

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        Madame Ranevsky also portrayed her refusal to accept change by not allowing the Cherry Orchard to be cut down and for it to be used as summer villas.  “Cut down?  You don’t know what you are talking about.”  Even though her family was in debt and they had no more money, she would not accept the fact that the only way to keep her land and to gain money was the cherry orchard being cut down.  Many other alternatives to gain money was tried but they all failed.  She also did not accept her change in social status.  She still ...

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