Shukhov's Survival Strategies.

Authors Avatar

IB English                                                                                James Heim

Essay                                                                                        January, 2004

Shukhov’s Survival Strategies

        Throughout Alexander Solzheitsyn’s novel, “One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich”, the theme of human survival is constantly present.  The way, in which Solzhenitsyn describes the intense, terrible conditions at the prison camp, shows that the individual prisoners needed survival skills, strategies, and qualities, if they wanted a chance to survive.  Solzhenitsyn uses the characters in the novel, to show this theme, which is portrayed through their behaviour, reactions, and their own actions.  The author also uses the setting to help display and develop the theme in the novel, by giving the impression of eerie, hopeless, and angry feelings in his setting, by using places like the sick room, and the work site.  Solzhenitsyn forebodes the fact in his book, that survival strategies separated the individuals in the prison who lived through their prison sentence and the ones that didn’t.  The novel focuses on one day in the life of the main character, Shukhov, in the prison camp.  We learn that he is a survivor, by analysis his day in the camp.  We learn that Ivan Denisovich, or Shukhov, as we know him, is a consummate survivor because he has a positive attitude, practical skills, and a strong sense of moral and ethical integrity.

        Shukhov appears to have both physical and mental strengths, which help him to survive in the prison camp.  We realise in the story that Ivan Denisovich has to deal with the survival concerns of the cold, hunger, and labour on a daily basis.  Within the camp there are two main groups, the prisoners who work for the authorities of the camp, and those who work on the ‘outside’.  Obviously, prisoners like Kolya Vdouvshkin, who work for the authorities, live an easier prison sentence because they are given a more favourable job without much work and struggle.  Along with this, these prisoners do not face the same survival concerns like with Shukhov.  Shukhov seems to have learned over this time in the camp that he cannot rely on the individuals on the ‘inside’ or working for the authorities, to pull him through the life in the camp.  This is an important survival method for himself.  He realises that he must survive by looking after himself.  At the beginning of the story.  Shukhov complains that he’s feeling ill, however he knows he must endure another hard day of labour in the freezing cold to survive.  Shukhov lives off the advice of his first squad leader, Kuziomin, who stated that, “those who do not make it are the ones who lick other’s plates, depend on doctors, and squeal on fellow prisoners.  Ivan Denisovich is a prisoner who has survived the camp for more than eight years, and this advice from his first squad leader taught him a valuable lesson and is advice, which he lives by.  For him this appears to be his number one law for survival, which he follows and abides by.

Join now!

        For Ivan Denisovich, hunger is a major survival concern for himself.  One of his major priorities throughout his day in the camp is to make sure that he has eaten a reasonable amount of food to give him energy to carry on through his day of hard labour.  Food is an essential element of survival for Shukhov, and this is why he devotes most of his skills and ability, not to mention time, to be able to keep himself well fed.  In the text we realise that Shukhov seems to be always complaining or concerned about something, and this is ...

This is a preview of the whole essay