One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Analytical Essay

Words: 1430
Pages: 6

Russia, has a lowest ever temperature of –44ºC, and an average of 104 days a year above 0ºC and a yearly average of 261 days below 0 ºC. It is the second coldest continent in the world only behind Antarctica, it snows on average 111 days of the year. It is dark, gloomy, freezing and miserable in the winter, and in the summer, cold, dark, and gloomy. Camps for political prisoners seemed even colder, especially with no real heating and limited clothes to wear on these wintriness days.
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<br>The camp which was the bases of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's novel A Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich was initiated by Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1953 until 1956. Stalin, which means "man of steel", constructed one of the tightest and

Time is absolutely nothing to us, just a number, to hands on a clock, digits, however it was once proclaimed by Benjamin Franklin "Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of." Time is said to be of the essence, but is it? To us it is, we are free for the majority of our time, how can we understand how life would be when you have close to no time to yourself. As Benjamin Franklin said time is the stuff life is made of, what kind of life would political prisoners have in a concentration camp.
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<br>It is said that time is money, not to all though, especially those who can't earn money. Every prisoner knew the exact number of days in his stretch, from the first to the last, including the extra leap year days. Time was not something they had much of, and when the prisoners did have time, it was usually squandered by re-counts, or extra work. The little free time the prisoners got, before the roll call in the morning, over meals, or simply waiting for work to begin became so precious and sacred. Conversely any time that was squandered was stolen time, time taken away from them, time which was theirs. The prisoners weren't able to take time off, in fact the only chance they