Line Illuminator - Max H.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Week 3 - Pages 69-105
Line Illuminator

''All the cook himself did was this: he poured the grits into the pot, adding salt; he divided the fat between the pot and himself (good fat didn't reach the zeks, and the rancid all went into the soup kettle [...] ) '' - page 70.

As expected, the prisoners are not really treated the best because after all, they are sent to camp because of a committed treason, which takes away their right to be treated equally. While the cook could be generous and give the good fat to the prisoners so they could enjoy their meals more, he keeps it to himself. Whatever is leftover is given to the prisoners. People in this world come in different sizes, tall, short, skinny, etc. However, each person needs or deserves a certain amount of food and water. In this case, the prisoners are working so hard, yet they receive almost no food, while the cook, who does almost nothing except for mixing a soup kettle, receives all the good part of the food in amounts of all the prisoners combined. I would imagine, that this cook is most likely fat because of the fact he is being very greedy by taking most of the food to himself. A question I have is, if the prisoners were fed better, wouldn't they be able to work much better?

A very common image to represent unfairness, and how one's needs are different from the other. For example, in the book, the cook separates all the good stuff for him, even though he doesn't work as hard as the prisoners. Though in that case, the prisoners receive less food because the camp is somewhere to demonstrate the lack of equality and fairness. <Source>

''Don't wait, leader. Go ahead, you're needed there.'' (Shukhov usually addressed Tiurin, more respectfully, as Andrei Prokofievich, but now, after working like that, he felt equal to the squad leader. He didn't put it to himself, ''Look, I'm your equal,'' he just knew it.) '' - page 105

Not always the leader can feel the most powerful, in this case, Shukhov feels that after working and leading the squad with labor, he felt equal to the squad leader, also known is Tiurin. He felt much more powerful, that instead, he felt like addressing Tiurin with less respect, by not calling him his full name, which is Andrei Prokofievich. Usually, when at school, students refer to teachers as Mr. or Ms. because it is more respectful. However, when one of equal power communicates with each other, they may call each other the way they feel more comfortable. For example, a teacher will call a teacher usually their first name when students are not around the area because that is what they are used to calling other teachers.

An image to explain leadership. Though one person may be at the top of the stairs for a while, it doesn't necessarily mean he will stay leading forever, soon enough the closest person may literally step up and become the new leader. In this case, Shukhov felt more power and thought he was equal to Tiurin. <Source>