This paper provides a comparison of an extract from One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and an article Compensating the Wrongly Convicted that is presented at the website of the Innocence Project. The two texts have similar themes – the issues of wrongful conviction and attitudes towards prisoners; however, their purpose, audience, and style are very different since the former extract is fine literature whereas the latter text is an informative presentation of a problem.
Audience/Purpose
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is majorly a piece of fictional literature written by the author who had a personal experience of being a prisoner in a Soviet labor camp. The book was intended as an instrument used to unmask the horrors of the Soviet regime and inform the readers about the unfair treatment of people based on minor wrongdoings. The book targets the people of all generations and serves as a reminder of the cruelty that should not be repeated. Compensating the Wrongly Convicted is intended to introduce the issue of wrongful convictions that persists in the United States today answering some of the basic questions concerning the problem and informs about the potential solutions and the need for them.
Content/Theme
The extract from One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich describes a series of ordinary scenes from the everyday life of zeks, depicts their living conditions and environments they work in, and presents the problems that concern them the most. The themes explored in it refer to the inconveniences and limitations the convicts face in everyday life such as hunger, fear, cold, and a risk to never come be released from the camp. Compensating the Wrongly Convicted covers the reasons why the wrongful convictions should be reviewed and reevaluated, the flaws of the existing legislation that cause the wrongful convictions, and how they can be addressed. To support the point, the article contains an example – the story of an actual person who had suffered a wrongful conviction.
Tone/Mood
In the extract, the tone switches from negative (when describing depressed thoughts of zeks and their dire day to day lives): “the zeks’ canteen was no more than a shanty made of boards nailed together around a stove, with some rusty metal strips over the cracks” (Solzhenitsyn 29), to positive (when discussing Shukhov’s term coming to its end and his excitement about it): “Yes, your term is coming to an end; the spool is unwinding…. Good, God! To step out to freedom, just walk out on your own two feet” (Solzhenitsyn 28).
In contrast, the tone of the article is majorly neutral and formal; a key typically used for the presentation of facts and informative leaflets: “President George W. Bush endorsed Congress’s recommended amount of up to $50,000 per year, with up to an additional $50,000 for each year spent on death row. Adjusted for inflation, this amount is $63,000” (“Compensating the Wrongly Convicted” par. 6)
Stylistic Devices
The language of the article is rather dry throughout the entire text. It mainly is used to deliver information comprehensively and clearly. For instance: “The federal government, the District of Columbia, and 30 states have compensation statutes of some form” (“Compensating the Wrongly Convicted” par. 4). It changes towards the end, in the conclusive paragraph, where the author uses the appeal to emotion as a clinger to persuade the readers that the issue under discussion is very significant and requires immediate attention. Compared to the text of the article, that of the extract conveys much more sentiment using detailed descriptions, metaphors (“it [hooter] started hoarsely, as though clearing its throat” (Solzhenitsyn 29), similes (“Gopchik loped behind like a hare”) (Solzhenitsyn 29).
Based on the different approaches to the use of the language, it is possible to state that the authors of the two texts attempted to achieve their goals of reaching out to the readers in a different manner. In particular, the author of Compensating the Wrongly Convicted relies on logos as the primary persuasion strategy using numbers and facts to support their arguments. In contrast, Solzhenitsyn’s main persuasion technique is based on pathos – the appeal to the readers’ emotions with the help of descriptions and stylistic devices the help the author communicate his story on a deeper level.
Structure
The article is presented in the form of questions and answers thus organizing the information based on several aspects of the topic into separate paragraphs. This way, the facts are delivered in a clearer manner divided based on the themes and issues, and the confusion is eliminated. Clarity and informativity are the main objectives of the author. At the same time, the extract comes from a work of fine literature and presents a story with occasional dialogs between the characters. The focus is not on the facts and information as much as on the communication of the entire story incorporating multiple themes that are intertwined and connected.
Works Cited
Compensating the Wrongly Convicted. 2016. Web.
Solzhenitsyn, Alexanrd. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. n.d. Web.