Free Writing Extended EssayFreewriting text #2: What is so special about this one day.
Original Free Write: Like everyday, but today Shukov didn't wake up at revile. Shukov always woke up at revile, but god wasn't on his side, "Had Shukov been punished for something he deserved he wouldn't have felt so resentful. What hurt him more was that he was always one of the first to be up" (Solzhenitsyn 8). It's always tough in an inmate camp, but today for Shukov, it was tougher since he was always on time but just today. As if god wouldn't let him slip. "With work-- that wasn't half so bad. They gave you hot food and you had no time to start thinking. Real jail was when you were kept back from work" (Solzhenitsyn 8), "That wasn't half so bad", how Shukov thinks really shows how desperate and tough you have to be in the Gulag. Its amazing how Solzhenitsyn could fit this one amazing day inside one book, every time you pick the book up and read it, you would always feel like its the next day. Hearing from the class discussions, it seems like people didn't like the ending but, I loved it. The part where Shukov mentions "A day with out a dark cloud. Almost a happy day. There were three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days like that in his stretch. From the first clang of the rail to the last clang of the rail." (Solzhenitsyn 167) for some reasons warms my heart and connected somewhere inside me giving so many flash backs. To conclude everything, the idea of this one special day, was magnificent and I loved it. Who doesn't love a book where you lost track of time when reading? Who doesn't love a book that gives you a strange warm-feeling when reading it? The book One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn contains both of the things. In the book, Shukov, the main character, shows how it is to be in the Gulag and battling with communism on the same time showing how it is to work with the people you are close to. But unlike any other day, why was "today" more special? On that day, Shukov woke up at five o'clock that morning but he felt horrible making him stay in bed longer. Shukov was a very consistent person and never woke up late, but today, he did and he had the tartar send him away. The quote "Had Shukov been punished for something he deserved he wouldn't have felt so resentful. What hurt him more was that he was always one of the first to be up" (Solzhenitsyn 8) is showing how he feels right now, but from the moment on, there's a pile of challenges waiting for him. From this moment on, everything builds off this this making this day "special". We go on with our daily lives making decisions, some normal decisions and some risky, life changing decisions. I often like to compare our lives to a road. There are many paths you can take, there are obviously going to be more than one route to your destination, some take a shorter time and some take a longer. The quote that resembles the quote is "If they hadn't put him into the cells; they hadn't send the squad to the settlement he'd swiped a bowl of kasha at dinner; the squad leader had fixed the rates well; he'd built a wall and enjoyed doing it; he'd smuggled that bit of hacksaw blade through; he'd earned a favor from Tsezar that evening; he'd bought that tobacco. And he hadn't fallen ill" (Solzhenitsyn 167). Reading this book gives me so many flash backs and Deja Vus since there were so many memorable "events" that has happened in my life that makes me look back at my decision making just like Shukov's. This was one of the biggest reason that I could relate and connect to Shukov making me attracted to the book. It shows how a mili-second could just change your life. I would say that that day was not Special at all. Since I believe in Butterfly effect or the Chaos theory, which is a theory where everything rotates around the causes and the after causes(effect). What could've made Shukov avoid all the things he had experienced today was just to avoid getting sick. Today was just a built but from all the things or the causes that had happened. The things that happened today was not as special as another other day of his prison sentence but just that the things that happened today was an after effect from other things before. To conclude everything, why today so special or more likely "different" from any other day to Shukov? Today was not special at all other than that Shukov made decisions that were different from others. If Shukov were to come down for revile, everything would've been a lot different and Shukov wouldn't be able to experience those things. As Shukov would say it "A day with out a dark cloud. Almost a happy day. There were three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days like that in his stretch. From the first clang of the rail to the last clang of the rail" (Solzhenitsyn 167).
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