As savvy as he is, Shukhov, like all the other prisoners, sometimes forgets exactly where he is. In this scene he approaches his work, and the work of others, honorably, refusing to "waste" anything. But he's forgetting that the camp itself is all about waste and useless work and slave labor.
Shukhov's work ethic isn't just what makes him a decent person; it's also what helps him to resist, however quietly, the oppression of the camp. Shukhov's refusal to "waste" anything is also what makes him a smart prisoner. Which brings us to the last of Shukhov's "jobs": survivor.
Just like the dude with the show on the Discovery Channel, Shukhov has lots of survivor skills, some of which he tries to teach to others in his Gang. Shukhov's self-respect, work ethic, and sense of honor help to set him apart from zeks like Fetyukov, who has no sense of shame.
Now, for the most part, Shukhov and the narrator don't just come right out and say "Check out Shukhov, isn't he nice and cool? Well, we see evidence with how he thinks about and approaches his work. We also see evidence in how he acts towards his fellow prisoners. He gives Alyoshka a biscuit, for instance, and he helps Tsezar hide his package during roll call. But Shukhov also looks out for himself; he's definitely not always altruistic, or self-sacrificing.
He's competitive, he schemes, and he sometimes screws people over. In fact, he may only offer help to Tsezar because Tsezar is wealthy and can do things for him later. Shukhov is a master strategist, and he approaches survival in the camp like he does his work: And Shukhov no longer had eyes for the distant view [ Shukhov is a lot like a chess player.
He's always "planning" what he'll do next, but at the same time he's always focused on the task at hand. Since he's very smart and savvy, Shukhov often comments on how stupid everyone else is around him. He comments on how the other zeks are morons for doing things like crowding the gate; he notes that Tsezar, Buynovsky, and Fetyukov aren't very sharp and can't take care of themselves; he thinks that the wardens are all idiots.
Since Shukhov is pretty clever, it makes sense that we would spend our day with the him. By following Shukhov around, we really learn what's what in the camp. Out of all the other prisoners we see, Shukhov is best able to introduce us to life in the camp.
And he's also one of the best representatives of the prisoners as a whole. He's been in the camp long enough to tell us what's up, but not so long that he can't also comment on the outside world. He was a farmer and a soldier, which puts him in good company, since a ton of the zeks were one or the other in the outside world.
And, as a skilled worker, he can also give us a good view of the type of work done in the camp. Instead, there was a lively new trade — dyeing carpets. A demobbed soldier had brought some stencils home, and it had become all the rage. There were more of these master dyers all the time.
So they went all around the country, they even flew in airplanes to save their precious time, and they raked the money in by the thousand, dyeing carpets all over the place. They charged fifty rubles to make a carpet out of an old sheet that nobody wanted, and it only took about an hour to paint the pattern on.
That way they could get out of the poverty she was struggling against, send their children to trade schools, and build themselves a new cottage in place of their old tumble-down place.
All the dyers were building themselves new houses. Down by the railroad, houses now cost twenty-five thousand instead of the five thousand they cost before. S hukhov still had quite a bit of time to do — a winter, a summer, another winter, another summer — but all the same, those carpets preyed on his mind. It could be just the job if he was deprived of rights or banished. And, anyway, what was so wonderful about these carpets?
What was on them? She wrote back that any fool could make them. All you did was put the stencil on the cloth and rub paint through the holes. There were three sorts. Those were the only patterns, but people all over the country jumped at the chance to buy them.
Because a real carpet cost thousands of rubles, not fifty. In jail and in the camps Shukhov had lost the habit of scheming how he was going to feed his family from day to day or year to year.
The bosses did all his thinking for him, and that somehow made life easier. But what would it be like when he got out? Shukhov might have to do the same. He still had a good pair of hands, hands that could turn to anything, so what was to stop him getting a proper job on the outside? Only — would they ever let him go? Story Begins: In the year just beginning — — Shukhov was entitled to write two letters. What best summarizes the above passage?
Shukhov is permitted to write home less frequently than in the past camp he attended. Shukhov left home, wrote two letters back to home, then returned to defend against an upcoming war. He has an assistant job indoors and is sent frequent food packages by his family.
He is generous and offers a smoke to Shukhov in the morning and gives him food for protecting his package in the evening. He doesn't completely understand the ways of the camp and almost loses his package because of his desire to eat it immediately rather than save it for later.
A former navy commander who has only been in the camp for two months and has been having a hard time adjusting. He served a month as a liaison officer on a British ship and was sent a gift by a British admiral after the war, which got him stuck in prison. He hasn't accepted that the camp guards don't follow the laws or Communist ideals and this lands him in the guardhouse for ten days. Still, he tries his hardest working, even when it is incredibly hard for him. A man in Barracks Seven from whom Shukhov has bought tobacco in the past and from whom he buys it this day.
He has the tendency to drop rather than stuff his tobacco, so Shukhov must pay attention to make sure he gets enough, but it is good tobacco.
The mess hall orderly. An enormous man who is classified as disabled because of an injured leg. He controls the entrance of squads into the mess hall and is eager to hit people with the big birch club he carries.
The security officer at the camp. He is a cruel man, and it is fitting that "volk," the root of his name, means wolf. It is his idea to have the guards make the prisoners open their coats in the cold morning air and search them for extra under things. He is also the one who sentences Buinovsky to ten days in the cells for arguing about legality and the true ideas of Communism.
The building foreman, a prisoner with a position of power. He confronts Tiurin about the stolen roofing felt used to cover the windows and has the bad sense to threaten to get Tiurin a third sentence for stealing. He is basically a coward and steps down when Kilgas and Senka back up Tiurin and look ready for a fight. Volkovoi's lieutenant. He is also a cruel officer enamored of his own power.
He charges the Moldavian with trying to escape, when he really fell asleep while working, and sends him to the guardhouses. The young medical assistant at the dispensary. He was really a student of literature but the doctor at the camp counseled him to say he was a medical assistant to give him an indoor office job and the chance to do the writing he couldn't do outside prison.
He is kind but can do nothing for Shukhov, whose temperature is too low to ensure that he can stay behind. The new doctor at the dispensary. Shukhov decides not to count on him letting him stay behind from work and rest since he believes that any man who can stay on his feet should be doing some kind of work in the dispensary. A dark-complexioned little man who is missing at evening roll call. He is in the prison camp for being a real spy. He is found, having fallen asleep after crawling up to do some plastering, and the other prisoners are angry at him for making them wait.
Priakhov charges him with attempting to escape and sends him to the cells. A guard. He looks big and menacing but is actually the kindest.
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