Of significant note in this episode is Ivan's decision: whether or not he should eat his half bread ration. He remembers how thoughtlessly he once filled his stomach with food back in his village, and how wrong he was to do so. Prison life has taught him that food is to be treated thoughtfully and with respect; he is proud of how much work he has done in the last eight years on so little food.
While Ivan eats, he thinks about some of his fellow prisoners. He likes the two Estonians for their camaraderie and for their support of each other; he thinks that he has never met a bad Estonian. Ivan appreciates most of the minority groups whom he meets in the camp, and he makes negative comments only about Russians, referring presumably to the population in the European part of the Soviet Union.
He accuses these people of having abandoned traditional Russian values and having become corrupted by the system. He praises the minority groups for their unwavering support of each other, for their preservation of their folk traditions, and for their good manners, as well as for having retained their religious beliefs. Later in the novel, Ivan will comment on the fact that the two Estonians see where he hides his food, but he feels sure that they will neither steal from him nor reveal his secret hiding place.
Deaf Senka Klevshin illustrates the absurdity of Article 58 of the penal code; he was taken prisoner by the Germans and was thrown in the concentration camp at Buchenwald, where he led a resistance movement. After the war, however, he was sentenced to ten years' hard work for "allowing himself to be taken prisoner" and for "collaborating with the enemy."
