How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Paragraph). We used H.T. Willetts's translation.
Quote #7
The long suffering Senka was mostly silent. Couldn't hear and didn't butt in. So nobody knew much about him except that he'd gone through Buchenwald, been in an underground organization there, and carried weapons into the compound for an uprising. (386)
Shukhov discusses many of his fellow prisoner's pasts confidently, as if he knows all he needs to know about them. Senka, though, is definitely an enigma. We only know enough about his past to make us curious, which definitely contrasts to a lot of the other characters in Gang 104.
Quote #8
They could all hear the captain barking in the doorway as though he was still on the bridge of his ship: "Must you clutter up the place like this? Eat up, get out, and give somebody else a chance." (453)
The captain often seems to forget where he is entirely and to behave as if he is still a naval captain on a ship. The captain shows how dangerous it can be to live wholly in the past in the camps. But there's also something amusing about the captain yelling at everyone constantly – he provides unintentional comedy.
Quote #9
You don't need brains to carry a handbarrow. That's why the foreman put those ex-bosses on the job. Fetyukov was supposed to have been a big boss in some office. Went around in a car.
When they first worked together, Fetyukov had tried throwing his weight around and shouting at the captain. But the captain smacked him in the teeth, and they called it quits. (320-1)
There's a lot of interesting social class commentary done through the character of Fetyukov. The ex-boss is now the low man on the totem pole, while formerly lower class people like Shukhov are skilled laborers in the Gang. The social classes of the outside world are flipped in the camp. Though the captain wasn't exactly lower class before, he would have ranked below Fetyukov socially in the outside world.