Quote 3
“Since
then it’s been decreed that the sun is highest at one o’clock.”
“Who
decreed that?”
“The Soviet government.”
This exchange in Section 5 between
Buynovsky, who jokingly announces the Soviet decree, and Shukhov,
who innocently half-believes it, shows the absurd pompousness of
the Soviet government. The joke takes the Soviet state’s willingness
to decree truths to an extreme. In telling the joke, Buynovsky implies
that the Soviet state believes itself all-powerful, able not only
to control the lives of its citizens but also to change the very
laws of nature. This idea of a government controlling the movements
of the sun or the passage of time shows us the foolishness of a
regime that blindly takes itself far too seriously.
The exchange also demonstrates the disparity of intellect between
the two men. Buynovsky is a cultivated Muscovite with artistic interests,
as we know from his impassioned conversations with Tsezar about
film. His joke satirizing the Soviet state attests to his sophisticated
wit. Shukhov, on the other hand, is perhaps not intelligent enough
to understand the joke, since his naïve question shows he accepts
the possibility that such an absurdity could even have been decreed.
Shukhov is spiritually deep, but he is not a fast thinker, and Buynovsky’s
humor goes right over his head. This difference in intelligence
reflects the difference in social class present in the camp and
in the supposedly classless Soviet society at large.
