One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
This fictional account of life in a former Soviet Gulag (forced labor camp) is drawn from author Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s personal experience as a prisoner under the Stalin regime. Its major theme is survival in a system designed to break inmates through a combination of harsh conditions, brutality and absurd camp rules. Some survive with dignity, others through theft, scavenging, and snitching on fellow prisoners. The weak and those who question the system don’t survive. Other themes include injustice, power and authority, corruption, cruelty, suffering, endurance, pride, camaraderie, competition, faith, memories and time.
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This story by Mary Yukari Waters deals with several often overlooked aspects of war: its effect on the families of those who don’t return, the resultant scarcity of basic necessities, and the impact of occupational forces on the lives of the loser. In the aftermath of World War 2, a young Japanese mother struggles to deal with the loss of her husband, her young son’s growing Americanisation and dimming memories of his father, and the fundamental shifts taking place in Japanese society. Themes include loss, grief, memory, customs and tradition, motherhood, change.
With the devastation currently taking place in Ukraine, we have decided to feature a story highlighting the misery of innocent victims of war.
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