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Ivan Denisovich And Night

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Night and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich express the potential horrors of humanity’s immense capacity for extreme cruelty. Both took place in mid-twentieth century Europe and exposed the hardships of life in forced-labor camps: Wiesel’s in various concentration camps, Solzhenitsyn’s in Gulags. It is important for human populations to be aware of these tragedies so as to not commit the same atrocities again; therefore, this essay will explore each with regards to shared or different themes included and the messages presented. Both of these books are important due to their influential and informative nature regarding the horrors of their respective historical times. Night by Elie Wiesel and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr …show more content…

Since the entire book takes place through the span of just one day, it is hard to see the bigger picture. On the other hand, life in the Gulag was monotonous, a prevalent theme, suggesting that if you know one day, you know all the days. Holding on to morals and humanity is different for Gulag prisoners than it is for concentration camp victims because people in Gulag have time sentences. They have a light at the end of the tunnel, a reason to maintain their humanity. For inhabitants of concentration camps, the only end in sight was death; they survived off of instincts, trying to stay alive out of default. So despite living in “dog eat dog” conditions, the people of the Gulag held on to loose morals, had a type of code of honor. When narrating about thieving, Ivan said, “Easy money had no weight: you didn't feel you'd earned it.” Another example of the Gulag’s retained humanity was reimbursement. There are several times when Ivan did something for Tsezar because it was generally assumed that favors are repaid. Tsezar paid Ivan back with food. When their bunk room had the nightly roll-call, Ivan hid and protected Tsezar’s food for him. In return, “Tsezar’s hand reached up to place two biscuits, two lumps of sugar, and one round chunk of sausage on Shukhov’s [Ivan’s] bed.” This self-sustaining, innate, code of honor that existed between some people was one example of morality that survives due to being an intrinsic component of human

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