In the labor camp of the book of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, every prisoner tends to hide their specificities and personalities to be like the person next to them, in order to survive without being too special under the Communist government, because they thought that the people who have different ideas can influence the others with anti-government thoughts and overthrow the government.
The prisoner lived next to Ivan, Alosha, tried to practice Atheism with hiding his bible when the leader of the gang check their personal belongings every night after dinner in their room. With this elimination of individual identity of Alosha, religious practice was all personal and free until Stalin took the control of the country, Alosha knew that if he kept reading bible in the room and did not hide it up, the labor camp leader will think that he will influence other people in the camp and encourage them to escape with his unknown religious book. Religion takes a huge place in a human being’s faith, they believe everything their God says and seek for answers in their lives from the God, and therefore Alosha had to hide his bible up.
On the other hand, the spoons were their individual specificities too. Every prisoner came from various kinds of cultures and traditions, they tried to hide the spoon if it is unnecessary, only use it when they eat. It represents that they only show their personal identities when they really need to, otherwise the prisoners would rather hide the