Their Lives In Camp example essay topic

Something about the human psyche keeps people alive in the horrific and torturous conditions. Again and again, people triumph in the face of abusive adversity. The holocaust, slavery, and gulags, such as the one in "One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", all have survivors who kept on living when happiness and hope is minuscule. What keeps men in a gulag alive?

Why do they continue to eat next to nothing, work hard and listen to guards who consistently abuse their power? Pain, both mental and physical greets the men daily. They have no reason to hope. Ivan Denisovich even says on page". " The reality is that all species, humans included have a basic instinct to survive, and find happiness and satisfaction in doing so. Most of the men in Ivan Denisovich have found a way to be content with living in a prison and being treated like dogs, not for just days, or months, but for an undefined amount of time, usually decades.

It would be natural to think that many lived because they still had hope for their freedom. However, many had little to look forward to about freedom. There was question to whether life in the camps was any worse outside the camps. In Russia at this time, a ruthless paranoid dictator, Stalin, controlled all aspects of life. Therefore few had overwhelming hope of getting out. Knowing that outside could be just as bad made it easier to exist in a camp, because there were millions of people just as hopeless.

The thought that it might be an undefined amount of time before the prisoners were free men, was less depressing because there was less to miss about "freedom". Some had nothing to go back to anyways, they had lost their family, and jobs. Those who had family grew apart from them due to the separation. Here in camp, their work squad had become a family. Those who had been there for years had found a way to survive with and even enjoy the meals they had. The camp had changed the goals of the prisoners.

On the day written about in "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", the reader finds the day very depressing, long and tiring. Ivan, on the other hand, considered it to be a good day. Happiness is relative. What one needs to be happy after living in a palace being waited on hand and foot, may be much more than someone who lives under a bridge downtown. Ivan's definition of happiness had changed while in camp. He had learned to find simple pleasure in his food, in the small amount of spare time he had and in concentrating on work.

He had learned to appreciate all the things that normally would be taken for granted. The goals which most have in life, such as find a good job, buy a car, have a family, or whatever they may be, are impossible in Ivan's world. Things such as escaping punishment, having extra food, worked on a wall, have stirred up satisfaction in him instead. This appreciation of the simple things in life, shows another reason for living. Ivan's ultimate satisfaction comes from surviving the day.

Living itself has become a goal, something to live for. The prisoners who weren't satisfied with simply living were doomed. For example, the captain, who wanted to be slightly warmer, was sent to the cooler, which would probably lead to his demise. Others who dreamed of more became depressed and quickly wasted away.

Obstinacy also contributed in the fight for life. The camp was trying to literally work them to death. And most of the time it succeeded. But to die was to ultimately give the guards what they wanted.

Therefore, living also was a form of defiance. The prisoners had few ways to assert their control over the guards. As said, by Arthur Jackson, a prisoner of war for 4 years in a Hong Kong prison camp, "I didn't want to give the Japanese the satisfaction of dragging me out feet first". He, and the characters in Ivan Denisovich had all seen what happened to those who refused to get up in the morning, or gave up on life. They suffered immensely, and died weak, unhappy and alone. Who wants to end their life like that?

The prisoners had little control over their lives, but living was something they could try to do. Then if they did die in the camp, it wasn't because they gave up, but because their bodies had. When prisoners gave up on life, their spirits died before their body did and the last days of their lives were void of any enjoyment. Many people would rather die from a bullet, than from their own weakness.

Even though they had been told again and again that they would never get out, the thought of freedom crept into everyone's mind every once in a while. The people they loved waited for them outside the camp. Some prisoners held onto life as a way not to let down those people. Even if they never got out, it wouldn't be their fault they deserted their family, because they had not let go of life.

Rather than hope for the future, the prisoners just focused on their lives in camp. By living they found satisfaction, a way to defy their overbearing authority figures, and a slight hope for a future. They didn't let anyone down by living, except perhaps the officials. The reasons individuals had for living all added up to one absolute reason: that survival and the will to survive is ingrained in everyone, and most will give anything in order to do so.