for those living in the camps. Each moment they can get that the authorities do not control gives them a feeling of freedom and hope. These spare seconds enable Denisovich to keep going, giving him time to collect his thoughts, and rest his work-weary body. "[T]hat moment ... belonged to the prisoners. While the authorities were sorting things out you stuck to the warmest place you could find. Sit down, take a rest, you'll have time enough to sweat blood." Another major theme is the trust between individuals and their leaders and peers, a relationship necessary for day-to-day living. The prisoners are divided up into teams, and each team is controlled by a team-leader. These teams live, eat, and work together, and it is interesting to look at the variety of personalities in each team. The teams are fed according to their job performance, so if someone in the team is shirking their responsibilities, the whole team suffers. Forcing the zeks to depend on their fellow prisoners makes it much easier for the authorities to control them. They have to work hard because if they shirk their responsibilities the rest of the team does not get to eat. The team members insult and urge each other on, knowing full well that if they do not work to their full potential they will not eat well. "It was like this: either you got a bit of extra or you all croaked. You're slacking, you rat - d'you think I'm willing to go hungry just because of you? Put your guts into it, scum." Shukhov illustrates for the readers the importance of many little things that one tends to take for granted. "And you? You got an extra hundred grammes of bread for your supper. A couple of hundred grammes ruled your life." The camp tries to break them of their personalities, reducing them only to a number that is painted on their uniform. The zeks manage to keep their sense of identity despite these attempts at dehumanisation. Their personal possessions are key to their identity, a...
