Book Analysis, Ivan And The Struggle For Freedom

Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942-1943 is book written by the British military historian, Antony Beevor. Stalingrad covers the Battle of Stalingrad during World War II. Stalingrad was a city in Russia where Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union fought for control. This was part of Adolf Hitler’s plan to crush the Soviet Union and extend his Third Reich into Russian territory. The battle lasted from August 1942 to February 1943. However, the battle ended up with the destruction of the entire German 6th army and with a victory for the Soviet Union. Beevor has won three awards for this book. I wish to give brief summaries of the five sections of the book and give reviews on their main content.

Ivan IV, also known as “Ivan the Terrible,” lived from 1530 to 1584 and was the first Tsar of Russia. He officially reigned from the age of three; however, he did not have any real power until he crowned himself “Tsar” of Russia in 1547. He went on to conquer vast amounts of neighboring territories, eventually controlling the largest empire in the world at the time. In addition to increasing the Russian Tsardom’s size, he also completely restructured the political system. He took away all power from the noble boyar elite, and became an absolute monarch. This was good because the boyars at the time had been corrupt, and more interested in their personal interests than the interests of the state (Ivan the Terrible).

In One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn shows how Soviet prisoners, known as Zeks, are treated while being in the gulag for one day through the eyes of the protagonist and omniscient narrator named Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. Despite being in an environment such as the Soviet Union, where there is harsh tundra and not much food to eat, Shukhov tries to make good use of what he has received while trying to keep himself alive. The purpose of Solzhenitsyn’s portrayal of food is to show its overall significance and that it is used as a means of trade and survival. Over time, the power of food reveals its significance to the Zeks and especially to Shukhov and food allows both groups understanding towards the necessity of food for their vitality and well-being additionally.

The Russian Revolution led to many improvements in production and education, allowing industrialization, but at the cost of many Russian lives. Russia advanced rapidly during the revolution. The question is were the Russian people better off after the Russian revolution? I believe so because of the improvements in education and production. Without the deaths of the Russian people they wouldn’t of been able to do this.

Newbery Award winning books, and Newbery Honor books, are children's literature that have exceeded in one or more area. These areas include: Theme or concept, accuracy, clarity and organization of information, development of plot and characters, the delineation of setting, and the appropriateness of the style of the literature. The One and Only Ivan exceeds these categories in more than one area. This fiction story is written for students in grades 3-5 and 6-8 at a guided reading level S (Scholastic, 2018). Katherine Applegate writes this story with a clear concept throughout. This children's literature clearly conveys the idea of what it means to treat others kindly, and how to be humane to not only humans, but to all living creatures. Not only is her concept defined throughout the story, the portrayal of the setting of the story is also appropriate and

In Russia a czar has the same the power as an Emperor of the U.K. In Russia there has had many different types of czars.There were good czars and also many, many bad czars, but by far the most interesting is Ivan The Terrible.

In Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, Rakitin responds to a central question throughout the novel, “What is permitted?” when he proudly states to Dmitry that “An intelligent man can do anything he likes as long as he’s clever enough to get away with it” (788). While Rakitin has found his answer to this question, multiple characters in the novel are still stuck on that question. Throughout the novel, Dostoevsky seems to separate these characters into two groups: the characters like Dmitry who wonder if all actions are permitted and the characters like Ivan who wonder if all thoughts are permitted. These groups seem completely separate until Book 10 when a boy named Koyla Krasotkin comes onto the scene who seems to be in both groups at once as he tests for himself exactly what thoughts and actions are permitted. In Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky uses Book 10 and Kolya to introduce the idea that the “free thinkers” and the “free doers” are one in the same in that they are wondering who will punish those who go beyond “what is permitted” and by extension sets up an argument between moral and legal punishment throughout the rest of the novel.

Russia had rather horrible relations with the other surrounding major powers. The other surrounding major powers were Poland-Lithuania, Siberia, and Sweden. Russia’s poor relations with these powers is illustrated in 1581 when Ivan the Terrible conquered Western Siberia. After this there were continual increases of a Russian presence in Siberia. With the other two major powers, Poland-Lithuania and Sweden, Ivan started the twenty-five year war known as the Livonian War.

What were you doing when you were 15? Probably going to class every day, learning about the same old stuff. What would you have done if you were crowned the first Czar in all of Russia when you were that young? Certainly, most people would’ve gone a wee bit crazy. But Ivan the Terrible, he went completely bonkers.

The problems of Ivan and Praskovya began long before they stood before an alter to say, “I do.” For Praskovya maybe her family taught her that marriage is a lifetime of romance; that her husbands’ responsibility is to ensure the happiness of his spouse; that a good relationship should be enough to meet all the wants and needs. Not only does this idea set her up for let-down and resentment, it also placed tons of pressure on her husband.

In Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich the narrator claims that Ivan lived a terrible life. " Ivan Ilyich's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible" (818). This is an interesting and conflicting claim made the narrator because most of people today live simple lives. According to Tolstoy’s claim then, they all are living terrible lives.

I’m doing my report on Ivan the Terrible. Ivan Vasiljevich the Terrible was born in 1530 and died in 1584. He was the son of the Grand Duke Vasili III. His mother Helena Glinsky was the daughter of a Luthuanian refugee who had found asylum in Russia. She was young, vivacious, intelligent, and beautiful. Vasili had married her after he tried to have an heir for 20 years with his first wife Salome.

“The One and Only Ivan” by Katherine Applegate was a completely different experience for me as an avid action/adventure reader. The bildungsroman style of this book was completely different from the straightforward types books I'm used to reading, this was a complete step out of my comfort zone. The book mainly focused on Ivan’s (Main character ( he is a gorilla who has been living in an arcade in a mall for for twenty seven years)) identity crisis, because he had spent so much time in captivity he has not really had the chance to be a gorilla and is therefore confused about who he really is, as he hasn't had chance to be a gorilla or a human. But as the story progresses Ivan’s perspective, and the reader's, is in constant flux. Though Ivan

“Nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom.” –The Grand Inquisitor” “Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” - Father Zosima. These two quotes voice the polarized philosophies that impregnate the book, The Brothers Karamazov. Ivan, the second of the three sons, and Zosima, the old monk, are huge commentators on the question, “Is the burden of free will to much for a human to bear?”