One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Reading Questions for 137-End of book

1. How were prisoner packages treated by the guards and the people working in the prison post office?

2. Why had Shukov ordered his wife not to send packages?

3. In what ways did Shukov take advantage of his fellow prisoners? Was he a good man?

4. What does Yu-81 represent for Sozhenitsyn (so for the author, not the narrator)?

5. How many grams of bread make up a pound?

6. What did the story about the admiral on p. 165 say about the life of people in the Soviet Union under communism?

7. Why isn’t Shukov religious? Do you blame him?

8. What did you think of Shukov’s good day? Why did Solzenhitsyn end the novel on this idea? Why did he end with the tone he did?

9. What was the point of the last page?