Post #6 - Question Comander - A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Pg 169 to After Word

Author: Alexander Soljenítsin

Question: Why did the author chose to only write about one day in his life and not the whole experience?

First, there are many answers to this question. It could be that he likes challenges and chose to write an entire book with a story that only happens in one day, of because that was the most marking day in his life. In my he chose to write only one day of his life because this experience can be so tough that only telling one day in there can give the reader a very intense story, also it makes the reader think in how it is to spend twenty years (give or take) in that labour camp.

Question: Were all of his days in that labour camp just like the one he told us or are all of the days different?

In my point of view there couldn't be much of a difference. His life inside the prison is controlled from the time he wakes up  to the time he goes back to sleep. The only thing that might change his routine is the temperature, in some cases he says that if the temperature is under -40 they wont go to work, also if they fall ill they can report sick and stay in bed. Other thing that could change is the prisoners to try a jail break, something that happened already before Ivan was in prison. So, in conclusion  I think that the book tells pretty much what happened during all of his experience in prison,

Question: Why does the author describe his life a dreadful?

I think that the author is not actually trying to make his life feel dreadful. It is just a clear fact that his quality of life isn't as good as our's are. The reason why the author is trying to make us feel the dread even more powerfully is because I author wants to stress how bad the living conditions were in the Gulags. Moreover I think that he is trying to protest against stalin.