‘Ivan Denisovich Commands pity but also respect’.

‘Ivan Denisovich Commands pity but also respect’.

I agree that in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Ivan Denisovich does command pity but also respect. He commands pity because of the hardships that have been done to him but also respect because of the way he handles the hardships.

There are many instances where his actions and history demand our pity or respect but not both. For instance we are told on the first page that he was always up at dawn because ‘that way he had an hour and a half all to himself before work parade – time for a man who knew his way around to ear a bit on the side.’ This demands respect because of his initiative to make things out of almost nothing e.g. the slippers he makes out of old bed linen.

Ivan wants to survive and live out his sentence. He is not here to change the system, (although the whole book is an attack on Stalin’s government and his rule, with Ivan being the ‘perfect’ Russian: hard working and respectful; has no r...