How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the

work developed through your interactive oral?

Candidate number: gtg181

Novel Title: One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich

Author: Alexander Solzhenitsyn

The cultural and contextual considerations that stood out for me the most is the cold

climate that was present in the novel. This brings a more authentic historical value to

the factual aspects into Solzhenitsyn’s novel. The Siberian plains, an existing place

used in the novel allows the readers to relate the novel to real life. In my interactive oral

I developed an understanding of the significance of the cold setting as a symbol to the

harsh conditions faced by the prisoners and civilians of the Soviet Union.

Stalinist Russia is a government influenced by an autocratic government and

communist ideologies. As our discussion followed, I became more aware that the harsh

treatment received by prisoners and Soviet citizens alike were as familiar as the

insufferable weather tolerated by them. This comparison stood out to me as I

understood more clearly the significance of the cold weather as a symbol to the

mistreatment inflicted by the government. This is highlighted by the events such as the

forced stripping of additional clothes before the march to work and the prohibition of
owning two boots for protection against the cold. Solzhenitsyn took advantage of this

contextual aspect to create a complaint on the government’s oppressive rule.

Solzhenitsyn has spent years in one of these Soviet camps. This biographical aspect

brought more authenticity to the novel. It convinced me that it is indeed an attempt to

criticize the Soviet government of its cruel act and tyranny towards not only its prisoners

but also its citizens. Readers can also relate more to the novel because they know that

the facts given to them are derived from Solzhenitsyn’s personal experiences when he

was a prisoner at the gulag. The cold faced by the characters in the novel were also

faced by Solzhenitsyn. In retrospect of this cultural and contextual value I’ve developed

a new understanding of the novel: it is not only just a novel about a man in a prison; it is

a personal struggle that was experienced by the author and that people under a

totalitarian government can relate to.

Word count :347

 How does Solzhenitsyn use the cold as a motif to symbolise the harsh
conditions in both the Soviet Union and the prison in the novel ‘One Day In The
Life Of Ivan Denisovich’?

The extreme weather of the isolated gulags was an instrument used by the Soviet Union

to prevent their prisoners’ escape. Behind this, however, Solzhenitsyn creatively crafted

the ‘cold’ as a motif to be analysed as a metaphor of the extreme conditions that the

prisoners are forced to deal with and the ill-treatment they are exposed to by  the Soviet

Regime. The setting of the novel takes place in the frigid, icy plains of Siberia where the

prisoners of the gulag camps are being oppressed and exploited. The cold as a motif

conveys the significance of physical elements and socio political struggle faced by the

Zeks under the oppressive nature of the communist regime. It can also be argued that

the gulags is itself imprisoned by the cold. This has crucial significance when readers

begin to understand that it is not only the prisoners’ but also the authoritative figures

inside the gulags that are stuck inside the Solzhenitsyn’s Stalinist regime.

The most typical setting of a prison that many commonly know of include jail bars,

claustrophobic confinements and isolated cells. But readers do not get that in One Day.

Instead, the true confinement of these prisoners is the arctic climate. They do not have

bars to prevent escape. They do not escape because they’ll die in the cold. It implies

that the cold is a prison of nature. It is the foundation of the novels social environment.

The Zeks are not only the prisoners of the camp but also prisoners of nature, they got

no way out as if their whole life is destined to be in the gulag camp with no possible

escape. “The ragged noise was muffled by ice two fingers thick on the windows and
soon died away. Too cold for the warder to go on hammering.” 1 (1) Solzhenitsyn started

the novel with a grating description of the cold, showing that the cold is a major concern

for the Zeks, as it is the first thing that comes in mind indicating the low temperature.

Prisoners are surrounded by acrid cold of the snow and punishing winds throughout

their way to work, eat or anything that they are doing, they cannot escape from the

extreme weather. When Shukhov and the other Zeks are in their usual duties, after

breakfast all the prisoners would march to go to the work site. The Zeks have to go

through the icy plains of Siberia. Unlike a usual prison site that requires guards to

company their journey with handcuffs and harsh surveillance, the Zeks are let to walk

freely with only their leader leading the way after they are all checked by the guards.

These difference are based on the extreme weather in the Gulag camp, allowing no

possible escape. “Bare white snow stretched to the horizon, to the left, to the right..” 2

Shukhov’s description of the landscape he is surrounded with, gives us a clear

understatement of the prison of nature.

The cold also restricts prisoners from life’s basic necessity. Food. Not only do they get

small portions that doesn’t remotely satisfy their needs but the choices of food that they

get is dependent upon the weather. The extremely cold weather restricts them into

having to eat whatever was provided and this usually depended on “the kind of

vegetables provided that Winter”3. Solzhenitsyn stresses on food in many parts of the

1 Shmoop Editorial Team. "Snow, Ice, and Cold in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich." Shmoop. Shmoop
University, 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 5 Dec. 2017.
2 Solzhenitsyn, Alexandr, Ralph Parker, Yevgen Yevtushenko, Alexander Tvardovsky, and Eric Bogosian.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. New York .: New American Library, 2009. 32. Print.
3 Solzhenitsyn, Alexandr, Ralph Parker, Yevgen Yevtushenko, Alexander Tvardovsky, and Eric Bogosian.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. New York .: New American Library, 2009. 14. Print.
book, as food is the primary concern of the Zeks in order to survive. “The only good

thing about stew was that it was hot but Shukov’s portion had grown cold” 4 here, the

centralized soviet union connects with the motif cold. Shukov received no warmth at all,

even in his greatest and ultimate need the cold still haunts. The cold plays an important

role in the power of the soviet regime torture towards the Zeks. The cold comes with

everything that is going on in the lives of these zeks, the power of the soviet regime was

supported by the extreme weather present there, making the lives of the zeks even

more miserable.

Solzhenitsyn expresses the struggle to keep human dignity under the political statement

of Stalin. A common trait of a totalitarian government is brainwashing the minds of its

citizens in an attempt to make them conform. An example of this is when Shukov went

to the mess hall and described how the prisoners were “eating with their hats on”5. The

cold help depicts the battle to fight against these Soviet tyrannical traits. Shukov still

values his individuality, unlike his fellow inmates as he tries to still maintain his humanity

by “[removing] his hat from his clean shaven head”6. Respecting himself as a man,

Shukov took his hat off before eating no matter how “cold it might be, he could never

bring himself to eat with his hat on”7. The cold, a metaphor of the oppressive rule of

Soviet Russia, restricts the prisoners of their own individuality as the cold forces them to

4 ibid
5 Solzhenitsyn, Alexandr, Ralph Parker, Yevgen Yevtushenko, Alexander Tvardovsky, and Eric Bogosian.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. New York .: New American Library, 2009. 13. Print.
6 Solzhenitsyn, Alexandr, Ralph Parker, Yevgen Yevtushenko, Alexander Tvardovsky, and Eric Bogosian.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. New York .: New American Library, 2009. 14. Print.
7 Solzhenitsyn, Alexandr, Ralph Parker, Yevgen Yevtushenko, Alexander Tvardovsky, and Eric Bogosian.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. New York .: New American Library, 2009. 14. Print.
conform and adapt to the current situations even though they know that their actions are

invalid. Although it is cold, Shukov is not bothered by this. He prefers to keep his

civilised self. Shukov’s dedication is a step towards rebellion in an autocratic and

totalitarian government.

Cold helps emphasise the hierarchy in the totalitarian state is an essential as to allow

the division of power among the society. Guards and other higher class of people in the

gulag camp confined in a different fate as compared with the prisoners. Although they

are also victims of the incompetent politics of the soviet regime, they are still in a much

superior state. “How can you expect a man’s who’s warm to understand a man who’s

cold?”8 Shukov’s response to Vdovushkin when he didn’t exempt him as Shukov is not

feeling well. Vdovushkin is the kind of prisoners that is given a more favourable job, “a

man who’s warm” does not have to endure the pain and brutal experiences of the cold

in gulag. Vdovushkin will never understand the confinement of “a man who’s cold” in the

animal fight for survival. Although this might be the case, it still acts as a form of illusion

as the prison guards and the prisoners are all confined in the same cruel weather. The

cold symbolises a Communist government that entraps all of its people. Not just the

citizens but also their authoritative figures. In the world of Stalinist Russia, everybody

suffers the same.

The cold acts to eliminate the sense of comradeship and individual pleasures, it

emphasises the sociopolitical aspects that are present in the Soviet Regime.Warmth is

8 Solzhenitsyn, Alexandr, Ralph Parker, Yevgen Yevtushenko, Alexander Tvardovsky, and Eric Bogosian.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. New York .: New American Library, 2009. 19. Print.
an important essential in the life of gulag, with warmth, prisoners survive and can satisfy

a portion of their wants. After Tyurin had finished fixing the work report, “the men sat

gazing into the fire”9 Tiurin was telling a story to the men that it seems that they are “a

big family.” Sitting by the stove, Tiurin’s story of injustice connects the men as they

share similar sorrow living under the rule of Stalin. Tiurin’s action in polishing the work

report for his squad showed a sense of comradeship, and that he could share his story

with his men. Furthermore, warmth play an important role in making the sense of

comradeship possible, as “Tiurin’s pockmarked face was lit up by the flames”.10 The

existence of the warmth in the stove started their talks in the working site, hence they

could share their individual feelings and sufferings among each other. In the state of

totalitarian regime, individual thoughts and comradeship are forbidden. Solzhenitsyn

uses cold to help portray the importance of warmth and company in the life of surviving

prisoners. The severely low temperature of the Siberian plains implant pain from the

stinging breeze that took over people’s mind, as now what they are feeling is only cold.

Metaphorically, the cold symbolizes the Soviet Regime quenching people’s thoughts to

an extent that they cannot even have individual ideas that could be shared amongst

their fellow prisoners.

In conclusion, the motif of the extreme cold weather convey many aspects in One Day.

It describes prisoners lives and psychological response of the paranoid regime

throughout the novel, cold has helped to bring about the sense of vicious treatments in

9 Solzhenitsyn, Alexandr, Ralph Parker, Yevgen Yevtushenko, Alexander Tvardovsky, and Eric Bogosian.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. New York .: New American Library, 2009. 69. Print.
10 Solzhenitsyn, Alexandr, Ralph Parker, Yevgen Yevtushenko, Alexander Tvardovsky, and Eric Bogosian.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. New York .: New American Library, 2009. 71. Print.
the gulag camp. The idea of hopelessness in the novel was also brought up by the cold

as the setting of the novel is based on the extreme weather. It delivers the sense of the

intense control of the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union in the 1960s of Russia, how

everything has restrictions and cold has made these restrictions to be a torture to the

prisoners. Therefore, the motif of the cold has helped Solzhenitsyn to better express

and convey clearly the repressive and brutal times in the Soviet Regime.

Bibliography:
Solzhenitsyn, Alexandr, Ralph Parker, Yevgen Yevtushenko, Alexander Tvardovsky,
and Eric Bogosian. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. New York .: New American
Library, 2009. 71. Print.