Book: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Author: Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Pages: 22 - 68
Job: Connection Captain
During this part of the book, I feel like you can clearly see that Ivan Denisovich was sent to jail, for no reason. He was falsely convicted for treason and sent to jail for 10 years, in Siberia. He is being suffered with very little food, and small amounts of clothing to protect him from the dreadful, cold weather. He is going through all of this pain without deserving it. During these pages it gets into it a little bit more, which made me realize that Ivan's experience is related to Stanley Yelnat's story. Stanley Yelnat is the main character in the book Holes. in this book, Stanley is accused of stealing someones shoes, due to a curse set on his family caused by his great-great-grandfather. He is then sent to Camp Green Lake, which is some sort of a juvenile prison. This reminds me of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich because both characters are going through the same thing, being sent to prison for doing nothing. The picture shown to your right is the book cover of Holes, written by Louis Sachar.
As you know Solzhenitsyn is a real person, which means that there are some related artifact in the book which happened to him in real life. For example, there is a part in the book where Ivan overhears a stranger referring to Stalin as "Old Whiskers". This reference is real, because Solzhenitsyn wrote a letter to a close friend of his, back in 1945, referring to Stalin as "a whiskered one", which is why he got arrested in the first place. By doing some research I found out that he was sentenced to the gulag from 1945 - 1953 (8 years) but an anti-government sentiments. The picture I chose is quite literal, by that I mean is explains itself. I think that people are always trying to listening to conversations of others. Source to #1 picture
Source to #2 picture
Isa,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, good connections. I could understand what you were trying to tell us.
To start with, in your connection, you said that the book we are reading is similar to the book "Holes". I my opinion, I have to agree with your saying. The reason I agree is because of the similar events. In both books, both main characters are hard workers. The example in the book we are reading is when Ivan has to clean the floor. He cleans the floor with his all his energy because he was told to do so. Furthermore, I know he is doing his best since in the beginning of the book, he said he wasn't with any energy, and even so, he "decided" to clean the room. This same event happened in the book "Holes". Stanley (the main character), had to suffer hours on doing his job, which was digging a hole every single day. The book says he would felt huge amounts of pain every single day after digging, and this shows he works hard because pain normally occurs when you work hard.
Another example that proves it connects is the amounts of food. In the book we are reading, the prisoners are suffering for the low amounts of food. When Ivan was cleaning, he heard the guard talking about grains (cereal). This shows the place is suffering of food because the guards are ecstatic from the coming of grains, and that doesn't happen often. Now, going to the book "Holes", they also suffer from amounts of food. While the prisoners were working, they reminded themselves from the boss since the boss had all the food and cold supplies, while the prisoners were tortured with low amounts of food.
Something that contradicts my thought is the fact of the weather. In our book, people are suffering from cold weather, and to prove this, prisoners and even people aren't able to cultivate food. In the other hand, in "Holes", people are suffering of burning because they don't have any cold drinks to refresh themselves.
Still, after this post, I ask, what would happen if "Holes" had the same weather as our book? Would the book still be similar, or different?
Daniel
Isa,
ReplyDeleteI really like you post. I think that your connection to another book is really interesting because usually people do connections to things that happens or happened to their lives. But, because we didn’t live in the 19’s we didn’t have a lot of experience so it was really good about you thinking about broader things like a book that connects to this book. Also, I like how you say that the you image is literal because you wanted to choose a image that could really represent people trying to listen to other people’s conversations.
Isa, I really liked your post and connections. I agree with you and Nico with you connections. Although, Holes and this book are very similar, I think that they are both very different. For example, in the book we are reading now, they have to work much harder because when they work harder, they make a profit. In Holes, they were not making profit because of people digging holes. They only wanted to find some treasure. If the characters from the Book Holes, went to this book, I think that they would struggle much more. Other than that, both, Stanley and Ivan, when there for nothing. Also, in the book Holes, its hot and in our book, it is cold. I think that it is harder to work in the cold because you feel more tired and lazy. In the book, it stated that some people could freeze to death, but the guards wouldn't care.I think that in Holes, if they froze to death that they would care. Since it was a child's camp, I think they would have at least cared a little more.
ReplyDeleteWow Nico, I never knew that Ivan had cancer while he was in camp. I think that it was very hard for him to survive and that many people didn't realize it. Going back to your first connection , I think that in the book Holes, they would have treated him a little better because of his condition. In his camp, they treat him worse and hardly give him food and water each day.
Nico,
ReplyDeleteSmart minds think alike, I like that! Anyways, like Bethany said, wow! I did not know that Ivan had cancer while he was at camp. I would've never imagined, because he is so strong. It must have been hard for him to go through the cold. And without any special medications to help him, I would love to be as brave and strong as him. Overall, thank you for replying to my post. I really enjoying replying to your reply. :)