How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Paragraph). We used H.T. Willetts's translation.
Quote #10
There's thieving on the site, there's thieving in the camp, and there was thieving before the food ever left the store. And not one of those thieves wields a pickax himself. You do that, and take what you're given. And move away from the serving hatch. It's dog eat dog here. (414-5)
Thieving, thieving everywhere. The sentence structure here is really interesting. The first section starts out with a lot of repetition ("thieving") and a longer sentence length. The final sentence is much shorter and blunter and helps to hammer the point about competition and unfairness home.
Quote #11
Whatever they'd been talking or thinking about was forgotten. The whole column had one thing and one thing only on its mind.
"Get ahead of Ten! Beat them to it!" (843-4)
This is one of the rare examples where a group competes together against another group; the bulk of the competition we see in the book is of an individual nature, which highlights how isolating and lonely camp life is.
Quote #12
Shukhov, behind him, slipped the words into his ear: "I'll come and get the tray, pal - I'm right behind you."
"That fellow over by the window's waiting for it, I promised him [...]"
"He can take a running jump - should've kept his eyes open."
They made a deal. (991-4)
Shukhov often does nice things for fellow gang members throughout his day, but he definitely has a ruthless streak and he has limited sympathy for prisoners who aren't competitive or aware.