The Indestructibility of Human NatureA Comparative Analysis of the Novels We by E. Zamyatin and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by A. Solzhenitsyn

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000904-005

Moscow Economic School

Michael Rodzianko

000904-005

English A1 SL

World Literature Assignment 1

The Indestructibility of Human Nature

A Comparative Analysis of the Novels We by E. Zamyatin and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by A. Solzhenitsyn

May 2006

Word Count 1410


The Indestructibility of Human Nature

A Comparative Analysis of the Novels We by E. Zamyatin and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by A. Solzhenitsyn

Throughout time Russian writers have focused on the workings of the human soul and the interaction between the individual and society. Russia’s greatest writers were usually critical of the regimes they lived under and thus often revealed their ideals very subtly through their works. At the same time the most renowned Russian writers believed in and incorporated into their works the power and the initial goodness of the soul (an example of this is Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky: even one of the bleakest characters ever created in Russian literature eventually found the light). All this fully applies to two outstanding Soviet authors A. Solzhenitsyn and E. Zamyatin. Their respective novels One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962) and We (1920) were labeled anti-soviet and caused the authors to become outcasts, but by reading deeper into the text we come to the realization that these novels were not written for anti-soviet purposes but rather to focus on the theme of the indestructibility of human nature among others.

The authors achieve this through various methods, which become obvious after a careful reading. One of the more apparent techniques used is the setting. In Solzhenitsyn’s novel the portrayal of the harsh labor camp with inhuman conditions, creates a seemingly uninhabitable environment. Zamyatin in his novel uses as a setting a common ideal of ‘the perfect society’, a utopia. However we gradually realize that this society is far from perfect, in fact it is the exact opposite, a dystopia. Both settings are unrealistic to the modern reader and are something most people can merely visualize and not even come close to understanding or feeling, let alone relate to. By setting the novels in a prison and a prison-like utopia, which in itself is an oxymoron, the authors create two environments meant to subdue human nature. By having the characters not only survive but also overcome their environments the authors managed to vividly show the unyieldingness and the strength of human nature.

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One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is set in a prison labor camp Seeing how Solzhenitsyn himself spent time in such prison camps, he could write from self-experience, which would mean that he recreated the atmosphere to the finest detail. Zamyatin, on the other hand worked from imagination creating a fictitious perfect world of the future. However, in order to show this utopia is not perfect Zamyatin introduced some elements of life in confinement. A feature of prison life used by both authors is the application of number names to the characters. The use of number names automatically creates ...

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