From the foreman’s check to Tsezar’s arrival in the
parcel room
Shukhov feels relieved that all of Gang 104 is
present, and the men learn that the missing prisoner is a Moldavian
from Gang 32 who is reputed to be a spy.
The crowd hisses in fury. Whether he has fallen asleep or tried
to escape, the Moldavian’s absence causes a long wait in the cold
for recounts. While Buynovsky and Tsezar continue their discussion
of Eisenstein’s films, the Moldavian shows up. He had fallen asleep
at the job site. The crowd reviles him, and some prisoners, including
a Hungarian, physically beat him. The guards call for another count.
Shukhov realizes the moon is high and half the evening has been
wasted. He curses the Moldavian, the guards, and his life. For a
moment he is disturbed by a hole in the line, fearing that another
man might be missing. But it turns out that Fetyukov has been momentarily
out of line, scrounging for a cigarette.
While waiting, Shukhov overhears a conversation about
prisoners who had been in the British navy. Shukhov meditates on
the irony of an officer once in golden epaulettes who is now a common prisoner
in a labor camp. He also recalls that he meant to go to the sick
bay. But he doesn’t ache as much now, and decides that he would
prefer to go to dinner.
Gang 104 spots a rival gang of
engineers racing toward the camp, eager to get first dibs on food
and parcels before Gang 104 arrives.
Since the engineers may be bearing the knives that have killed stoolies,
the guards search them carefully and slowly. Shukhov reflects that
at moments like these, guards and inmates are friends: the enemy
is the other gang. The engineers fall behind, and Gang 104 rejoices.
The search is imminent. Shukhov goes up to Tsezar and asks if he
would like Shukhov to stand in line in the parcel room for him,
on the off chance that there is a parcel for Tsezar. Shukhov secretly
hopes that Tsezar will reward him if he helps deliver a package.
Tsezar eventually tells Shukhov to wait in line for him. As Shukhov
waits for the body search he remembers the bit of metal blade he
picked up earlier. He debates dropping it, but is tempted by the
extra bread such a tool could earn him if he were to trade it with
a fellow prisoner. He hides the blade in his mitten. The guard shakes
one mitten on Shukhov’s hand, and Shukhov is terrified he will shake
the other, which contains the blade, but at that moment the engineers
arrive. The guard waves Shukhov through.
Shukhov enters the parcel room, and gets in line to wait
for Tsezar’s package. He notes that there are fifteen people in
line before him, which represents an hour’s wait. Shukhov imagines
that someone will come running up to tell him a parcel awaits him,
but he knows this will never happen. He received some parcels in
his former camp, but he told his wife to keep all supplies for their
family. The narrator tells us that most of what is sent to prisoners
goes to the guards anyway.
Analysis
The prisoners’ treatment of the Moldavian shows that brutality
is inflicted not just by the guards but also by fellow prisoners.
The beating the Moldavian receives is a disturbing reminder that
nasty prejudices occur among the inmates as much as among the administrators.
This is the first time we see a prisoner’s nationality despised, as
this one’s Romanian nationality is (Moldavia is a province of Romania).
Nor do we ever see a prisoner brutally beaten by his fellow men
(the other beatings are by guards or officers). Solzhenitsyn’s bleak
view of the hatred of prisoners by other prisoners comes as something
new. We have seen prisoners show mild irritation to other prisoners
before, as with Shukhov’s annoyance at Fetyukov’s scrounging, but
nothing of this power or magnitude. The optimistic picture of prisoner
solidarity we see elsewhere is balanced here by Solzhenitsyn’s reminder
that men are often cruel to one another, and Shukhov is no exception.
Solzhenitsyn’s purpose in this scene is not to chide Shukhov
for hypocrisy but to point out Shukhov’s human shortcomings. The exchange
shows that Shukhov is not the wise man of the camp but rather an
ordinary person with limitations. The Moldavian’s beating echoes
earlier scenes from the novel. Like many of the characters’ crimes,
the Moldavian’s crime is accidental rather than intentional. Just
as Shukhov’s illness is not his fault, the Moldavian certainly doesn’t
intend to fall asleep before the body count. Punishment seems deeply
unjust in both cases. When Shukhov curses the Moldavian, he seems
unaware that he could easily have been in the latter’s place if
his own oversleeping had occurred a few hours later in the day.
This small hypocrisy reveals that Shukhov doesn’t allow sympathy
for his fellow inmates to get in the way of his individual needs
any more than the average inmate does.
Shukhov’s eagerness to wait in line for Tsezar’s parcel
reveals that he may actually be nostalgic for the outside world.
On the surface, Shukhov’s motivation is purely practical: he may
walk away with a bit of Tsezar’s loot if he does him this favor.
However, Shukhov’s real motivation may be deeper. The parcel room
is one of the few places in the camp in which prisoners make contact
with the outside world of families, friends, and loved ones back
home. Prisoners who wait in line for a parcel feel that they have
not been forgotten by society, and have not entirely broken off
contact with their past. One can argue that Shukhov’s desire to
stand in line suggests that he wants to establish contact with his
family. His daydream in which someone runs up to tell him there
is a package for him shows that in some hidden way he wishes it
to be possible. Shukhov may tell himself that he has no real connections
with the outside world anymore, but this scene in the parcel room
suggests that he cannot leave his past entirely behind.
