One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich Character Analysis

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From the biting frost of the weather to a rare stub of cigarette, ‘One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich’ by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is a short novel about a prisoner named Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, who is one of millions heartlessly imprisoned for countless years in a Stalinist labor camp located in Siberia sometime in the 1950’s. Though he is somewhat uneducated, he is hardworking a working-class and his daily struggle represents that of the average Russian citizen, along with the other inmates in the camp. In ‘One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich’, Solzenitsyn uses the two minor characters, Alyosha and Fetiukov to show the significance of how two characters with contrasting personalities influence Shukhov’s life, not forgetting the fact they have different perspective of the camp, despite the fact that they are all the same prisoners who share a similar everyday routine. …show more content…

Being one of many prisoners in the labor camp, there are several characters aside from Shukhov who feature in the story. In spite of the fact that the story happens all in one day, the display of several characters and their personalities were evident during that short time. Shukhov’s interactions with each reveal the nature of the personalities. Two of the minor characters, Alyosha and Fetiukov, seem to have some kind of significance in Shukhov’s day, one of them he’s in good terms with and the other he is not fond