In my opinion, this book was controversial because it had not been written through the eyes of one specific person: Shukhov was poor, uneducated – a peasant, but he could tell a story. Through him the spirit of the Russian man was heard and this was to prove dangerous.
An example from the book is in page number 34, when the warden informs him that Shukhov—identified officially as prisoner “Shcha-854”—will be punished for not getting up at the proper time. He says that Shukhov’s sentence will be three days in the hole. This shows that people do not have the freedom to choose. And if they make a choice they get punished.
Hey Stefano,
ReplyDeleteI liked your post since, like the last one, the answers were broad and gave you something to think about. But I think that there was more that you could add to your answers. For example, you could have given more text evidence to support you claim, or you could've given more details on why you think this book was controversial and what challenged society. Overall, I think the post was OK but you could definitely have added more to it to make it better.
Dear Stefano,
ReplyDeleteYour post was a post which challenged some of my ideas on this book. I believe that majority of the Russian people had learned to keep quiet, but people like Ivan Denisovich and Alexander Solzhenitsyn had a hard time to do so. That is why I believe that Ivan does not really represent the common russian man, he represents Alexander, Solzhenitsyn. What do you think?