My thems is oppression and i need help identifying examples and quotes to help me write notes about oppression showed or portrayed in this novel.
It's no mistake that in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Gang 104 spends most of their day working at an incomplete power station. None of the members of Gang 104 have much power, especially when compared to the guards, with their whips and dogs, the wardens, etc. Futility, or the uselessness of action, is a running theme for the prisoners, as is injustice. Things aren't and never will be fair in the prison camp, and those with even the smallest amount of power often abuse it. But even those with some power have limits, as we see with Tsezar. He's wealthy enough to get packages and to bribe his way into a good work position, but he doesn't have the power (or knowledge) to avoid getting busted by the guards. He has to put himself in Shukhov's debt instead. We don't want to have a cheesy "the more you know" moment, but knowledge is definitely one of the main sources of power in the camps. Ultimately, though, the main power (the oppressive government) that controls everyone in the camps is distant, removed, and at times invisible.
