From Shukhov’s going to bed to the end of the novel
Shukhov pulls off his boots and hoists himself up into
his bunk. He examines the bit of steel he has found, planning to
make a good knife over the next four days. He knows that he must
hide the forbidden piece of steel carefully. Meanwhile, he sees
Fetyukov return sobbing and bleeding. Fetyukov has been beaten up
as punishment for licking out the bowls in the mess hall. Shukhov
feels sorry for him. Tsezar calls out to Shukhov, asking to borrow
his folding knife to cut sausage. Shukhov willingly lends it to
Tsezar, knowing that Tsezar will reward him for the favor. Resting
on his bunk, Shukhov overhears Tsezar offering goodies to Buynovsky
and telling stories about the Soviet government’s attempts to make
a visiting American official believe that the Soviet economy was
thriving by stocking a local store to the gills right before the
American arrived. Tsezar gives Shukhov some biscuits, sugar, and
a slice of sausage.
A warden called Snub Nose arrives to warn Tyurin that
some of his men have not yet submitted their written explanations
for possessing forbidden items. Tyurin tells him it is hard for
many of them to submit explanations because they are illiterate.
Snub Nose says they must submit explanations by the morning. Snub
Nose also summons Buynovsky for a trip to the hole for ten days’
punishment. Shukhov reflects on the cold stone walls of the hole,
and how fifteen days in it would kill a man while ten days would
mean tuberculosis.
The hut orderly calls the men outside for a body count.
Tsezar panics. He does not know what to do with his parcel. Shukhov
urges him to be the last to leave the hut. Shukhov promises to be
the first to come back in, and to guard the bag. Outside the men
wait in the cold for the count. When it is over, Shukhov dashes
back inside and pulls off his boots near Tsezar’s bunk. Another
prisoner eyes him suspiciously. Tsezar returns and thanks Shukhov
for his help.
Shukhov lies down on his bare mattress, wondering why
women back home bother with sheets, which just create more laundry.
He is happy, and thanks God out loud for another day done. He sees
Alyoshka reading the New Testament. Alyoshka has heard Shukhov thank
God, and asks why Shukhov does not pray to him properly. Shukhov
replies that prayers are never answered. Alyoshka rebuts that Shukhov
has not prayed hard enough. Aloyshka adds that prayer should be
for spiritual goods, not earthly ones like the daily ration of bread.
He urges Shukhov not to covet material goods. Shukhov lies back
down, reflecting on Alyoshka’s strange gladness at being in prison.
A second roll call is ordered. Some of the men have already
fallen asleep, and they grumble as they pull on their clothes. Tsezar
hands the bag of food up to Shukhov, and asks him to hide it under
his pillow, knowing that no one will suspect Shukhov of having anything. The
warden is impatient with the slow movers, and threatens them with
a beating. They all go out. One by one, they are allowed back in.
Shukhov gives Tsezar his bag back, and wonders why Alyoshka always
does favors for everyone without expecting any reward. Shukhov hands
Alyoshka a biscuit. Alyoshka smiles and eats it. Shukhov eats his
bit of sausage.
Shukhov falls asleep content. He has been well fed, found
a blade for a knife, bought tobacco, and hasn’t been thrown in the
hole. He notes that it has been an almost happy day. The narrator
remarks that it is just one of the 3,653 days
of Shukhov’s ten-year sentence.
Analysis
Shukhov’s relationship with his prisonmates is morally
ambiguous. On one hand, he shows pity on another human in a way
that he has never done before in the novel when he feels sorry for
the sobbing and bloody Fetyukov, who has been beaten up for licking
the bowls. Shukhov’s compassion shows his basic good-heartedness,
even after so many years of camp hardships. But on the other hand,
Shukhov’s generosity is motivated by a desire for repayment. He
lends Tsezar his folding knife to cut sausages because he calculates
that he will get a payback for his good deed later, not because
he intends good will. Shukhov also shows a lack of brotherly love
when he finds out that his hutmate Buynovsky has been sentenced
to ten days in the hole. Shukhov reacts with no emotion, merely
noting that “there was not much you could say.” In the end, Shukhov
is only human, and under the stressful conditions of camp life moral
considerations are often a second priority to self-preservation
instincts.
In the final paragraphs of the novel, Shukhov begins to
care less about doing favors in order to receive payback and more
about doing favors for the sake of helping others. The dialogue
between Shukhov and Alyoshka shows how Shukhov begins to accept
Alyoshka’s Christian philosophy. Alyoshka is a Baptist, belonging
to a Christian denomination that emphasizes the possibility of changing one’s
life. Although Shukhov is not religious, he experiences a moral rebirth
during his theological conversation with Alyoshka. After this conversation,
Shukhov performs his first truly generous act in the novel: he gives
Alyoshka one of his precious biscuits. Shukhov knows that Alyoshka
never expects payback for the favors he does, so Shukhov himself
does not expect a payback for this biscuit. This gift to Alyoshka
is selfless, not calculated. In this moment, Shukhov is a giver
for the first time in the novel, showing that in some small way,
he has become a new person.
The ending of the novel implies that happiness is possible
in the most dire of situations. Shukhov’s contentment that “it was
almost a happy day” is surprising when contrasted with the misery
of the novel’s early moments. Shukhov’s trajectory in the novel,
from abject misery to hard work to contentment and religion at the
end, mimics Dante’s religious epic poem The Divine Comedy, which influenced
Solzhenitsyn deeply. In The Divine Comedy, Dante
travels from hell, through purgatory, to heaven. Like Dante, Shukhov moves
from discomfort to bliss, and from material existence to spiritual
transcendence. Shukhov’s journey is interior, in his soul. From an
outside perspective, his existence in the labor camp seems dismal and
not at all uplifting—as the narrator reminds us when he reports that
this day is only one of the 3,653 days of
Shukhov’s sentence. Shukhov’s triumph, however, is his ability to
find meaning in an environment that seeks to strip it completely
from his life
