Please take a moment to complete this survey below
Library's collection Library's IT development CancelThis thesis is a study of Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan
Denisovich. It deals with the main character's maintenance of his dignity in the
concentration camp. Solzhenitsyn's One Day vividly picturizes the suffering,
injustice, and dehumanization in a Siberian concentration camp. The harshness
of living in the camp negatively influences the prisoners that make them do
bribery, corruption, theft, etc, as they try to survive. However, the main
character of the novel, who is also the title character: Ivan Denisovich Shukhov,
is visualized as an ordinary, simple, sturdy, and vigorous man who struggles to
maintain his dignity under the inhumane conditions. In relevance to this, the
writer of ihe thesis wants to reveal that Shukhov can maintain his dignity by
retaining his good qualities under the harsh condition of the camp. In trying to
reveal the condition of the camp in which the main character lives and maintains
his dignity, the thesis writer analyzes the general environment of the camp and
the prisoners' dairy manner of living. Whereas, through characterization, she
reveals that Shukhov can maintain his good qualities in the camp. In contrast to
the other prisoners who degrade their qualities due to the harsh environment in
the camp, Shukhov regards his camp experience not exclusively as a completely
unacceptable violation of normal human life, but also as an experience which can
lead him to new enriching perception. He has a good moral principle and he
always lives by it. Against the starvation, exhaustion, and annihilation by the
authorities in the camp, Shukhov keeps working hard. He also keeps his
responsibility, his honesty, etc. Thus, by maintaining his good qualities in the
camp life, he is proved to be able to maintain his dignity in the concentration
camp.