One Day in the Life

It did not really matter what we expected from life,

but rather what life expected from us.

We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life,

and instead to think of ourselves

as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly.

Our answer must consist,

not in talk and meditation,

but in right action and in right conduct.

Life ultimately means taking the responsibility

to find the right answer to its problems

and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets

for each individual.

-Victor Frankl

TEACH US: For your lesson, select a quotation, scene, idea, symbol, or character which we have yet to discuss, but which you feel is significant. Summarize the scene or quote the passage, and then write a fully realized paragraph explaining the importance or significance. Write your very, very, very best. Select powerful, even surprising words. Explain in detail. Be convincing. You'll read it out loud to us, then ask a deep question that gets us thinking and talking. This page will go into your portfolio.

1-44: Makaya, Caeley, Tristyn

44-98: Jack, Stuart, Judah

98-146: Eli, Joy, Maizey, Katie

We'll take notes on your insights...

Think deeply:

Do any one of the following, using at least one quote from each of the four segments of the book... you'll have to find your own for the last quarter of the book. Don't limit yourself: think of the book as a simple story of a character, and also as a political protest, and also as a metaphor for life... Alternatively, suggest your own essay topic.

1. When Shukhov goes to sleep he reflects on his day, which has been "almost happy." How is that even possible? What is it that makes Shukhov able to survive the unspeakable misery of this place? What is this book about, in thematic terms?
2. At one point Shukhov says he has quit hoping for freedom, and Alyoshka insists one should not pray for it. What kind of sense does that make?
3. People wield power in the camp, for good and ill, and the prisoners deal with the rules and regulations and leaders and tyrants as best they can. What does the book seem to imply about the best way to deal with authority? Be very specific to moments in the story.
4. Did you notice that the book has no chapters? Explain why (in thematic terms) Solzhenitsyn structures it this way.
5. Compare this book with any other that you've read, or with a movie you've seen. Show how both works deal with similar ideas.
6. Write Shukhov's yearly letter to his wife, and then, in a paragraph, explain some of the decisions you made in content and style.
7. Why does Shukhov (oh, and Kilgas, and some of the others) take such pride in his work? Show how that ethic impacts their experience of life in the camp.
8. How is life in the Gulag structured to destroy the human spirit, and why does it fail?