Hiro's website
The question, Why should all high school students read this book? Why should all world leaders? I believe that not all but most high school students should read this book. This book offers more than any typical book you would read. For example, the amount of perspective this book provides is a lot more than any other book out there. This book is almost as if it was designed for literature teachers to provide to their students. This book offers lots of in depth details, new vocabulary words and lots more. What else could a literature teacher ask for in one book. Other than that, I believe that leaders could learn a lot from this book as well. This book offers lots of perspective of other people that are in the same situation as Ivan Denisovich, also, the amount of writing techniques provided in this book is through the roof, and also, reading this book will show how much your own life is worth to you.
Shukhov, the protagonist, has lived in a prison for ten years and still counting. When we read a book, we usually don’t read a book about a guy in prison for ten years. This is what makes this book unique. Because of this reason, we can get lots of perspective from this one book. Much more than what any other book would provide. Shukhov uses everything with full potential. For example, the spoon. When we look at a spoon, we don’t really think much of it. Or maybe nothing at all. Shukhov hides his spoon after every meal, this provides the Shukhov with some individuality. The spoon is something Shukhov must hide from the prison. Rather than having a knife, or a fork, he choses the spoon. The food provided by the prison is also not the greatest quality. But what can Shukhov do about it. Just from the spoon and the food, if we go more in depth, we will find more perspective.
The writing techniques used in this book are something many high school students would not use. This books main technique I personally saw was the use of asterisks. For example, “Buinovsky, for instance, was not the sort to sit keeping another zek’s* bowl for him.”(Solzhenitsyn 15). On the bottom of this page, it gives the definition of the word zek’s, which was very useful all the time. Without this, it would leave the readers would be confused, and stay confused. Also, another technique used was the switching of perspective. The book switches between first, second and third person. Almost impossible to notice but does happen. This I have never seen before, or have never thought of until mentioned. High school students that read this book, can learn lots from these simple techniques.
When I read this book as a high school student, I realised how much life is worth right now. All of Shukhov's problems, do not exist for us. We don’t have to worry about having our bellies being filled, and we don’t have to worry about our belongings being taken away. If we suddenly got transported back in time to where Shukhov is, we really wouldn’t be able to live for long. One thing that is very different is the way we get warmth. We can either press a button, or turn a knob and our bodies will be heated up in no time. But Shukhov, had to risk other people's lives, by working with them and boarding up windows with their own materials. No matter how much we hate our lives, or how bad things can be, it can never be as bad as what Shukhov went through.
Whether if we enjoy this book or not, high school students can learn a lot from this not so long book. When reading this book, it is almost guaranteed that you will get perspective from Shukhov, learn new ways of writing, or just simply be grateful of our lives we have right now. I personally hate reading books. But this book brought reading to a whole new level. This book is meant for high school students, and maybe some leaders. The leaders that are not so great at leading could use this book as advice. “One of the greatest Russian writers of the twentieth century.” by BBC News just tells you that this book is a must read for all readers.