Comparing Pi And Life Of Ivan Denisovich

In both Life of Pi by Yann Martel and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the protagonists experience major changes from their everyday life. In LoP, Pi travels to Canada by boat to start a new life with his family, but after the boat sinks, finds himself isolated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with only a Bengal tiger for company. In ODITLOID, the Russian Ivan Denisovich (Shukhov) first suffers the horrors of battle in WWII, and then winds up in a Russian prison camp, wrongly accused of being a spy. The theme of Tsimtsum-the creation and filing of a void-plays a crucial role in the novels. Both Pi and Shukhov experience tremendous changes in their respective novels, but due to their resilience, they find the will to survive. As a result of this resilience,

In ODITLOID, the protagonist Shukhov loses both his family and his way of life. In the prison camp, Shukhov can only contact his family twice a year, and finds that when he writes he no longer has a deep connection with them. Instead of clinging to a family he now has little in common with, Shukhov finds a new family in his work group, Gang 104. Despite coming from different walks of life, practicing different religions, having different ethnic origins, and speaking different languages, they find brotherhood through one another. The daily struggle to survive and the constant suffering within the work camps is what brings this gang together as more than just coworkers, but brothers. They depend on each other for support, and that brotherhood pushes Shukhov and gives him the will to survive. In LoP, Pi