Grade Level:
9 - 12
Literary Form:
World Novel
Paired with:
Man’s Search for Meaning 10 Lesson Plans/26 Handouts/72 Pages
ISBN:978-1-56077-858-5
Description:
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is set in a labor camp in Stalin's Russia. It demarcated Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as a spokesperson for the experiences of suffering. He offers a message of hope implicitly through the character of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, a prisoner. Solzhenitsyn proclaims that the effects of suffering need not languish vainly in the human soul. Through endurance under such conditions, mere survival becomes an act of refusal and resistance. In this manmade hell, Shukhov retains his moral dignity. He demonstrates he is a free man, striking a balance between the aggressive necessity to survive and compromise with the need to live.
Activities:
Students examine the diction Solzhenitsyn uses and offer predictions on what his work may show. They research a topic related to World War II. Students question and interpret various motifs. They critique the behavior of the prisoners and determine the significance of the behaviors. They read a section of the Gulag Archipelago compare and contrast it to One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
Supplementary materials include an Advanced Placement Literature and Composition exercise and a test with answer key.
Ethical Values:
Endurance
Faith
Freedom
Responsibility
Truth
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