Ivan joins his gang in the mess hall, remarking on the routine surrounding the daily meals. Fetyukov, the scrounger, is guarding Ivan's breakfast and is clearly disappointed when the latter shows up to claim it. For the next ten minutes, Ivan concentrates only on his food, even though it has gone cold while he has been away. He eats slowly and carefully, since the time spent eating — ten minutes at breakfast, five minutes at lunch, and another five minutes at supper — is the only time which the prisoners have to themselves. When he has finished his poor meal — cottage gruel, boiled fish bones, and mush (made of "Chinese" oatmeal) — he goes to the hospital block.
Note in this episode that as Ivan pushes his way into the mess hall to claim his breakfast, he comments on the fact that it is sometimes necessary to use physical force to push other prisoners out of the way. As we can see in other episodes, Ivan is capable of aggressive or even rude behavior, even though he is basically a gentle and nonviolent man. Yet there are clearly times when physical force is necessary for him to assert himself in his fight for survival. These acts are not committed maliciously or even with premeditation; they are instinctive actions performed either for self-preservation, or else because they are part of the camp ritual.
On his way to a table, Ivan observes a young man crossing himself before eating his meal, and briefly he ponders the loss of religious customs in Soviet Russia. Solzhenitsyn repeatedly calls this suppression of religion in Soviet Russia one of the worst offenses of the Soviet regime and believes that a revival of traditional Russian religiosity and the eventual overthrow of the regime will go hand in hand. It is interesting to see Ivan, himself not a man of traditional Christian faith, comment somewhat sadly on the decline of religion in Russia.
