"Slavenka Drakulic has been called the Simone de Beauvoir of Eastern Europe, and this book is a testament as to why." Robin Morgan
We read two excerps, "A Chat with My Censor" and "How We Survived." What do these chapters reveal about ordinary life under a communist regime? What are three things the author said that you think are important? How do panty hose, shoeboxes, cans and old pants relate to the title of the final chapter? Is this picture of communism what you expected?
Her Life Through Their Eyes
We read two excerps, "A Chat with My Censor" and "How We Survived." What do these chapters reveal about ordinary life under a communist regime? What are three things the author said that you think are important? How do panty hose, shoeboxes, cans and old pants relate to the title of the final chapter? Is this picture of communism what you expected?
Her Life Through Their Eyes
43 comments:
Reading these two chapters written by Slavenka Drakulic in her novel has allowed the reader insight into a civilian’s life during the communist regime. A picture has been created for us from her first hand experience and from the experiences of her family. The first chapter we read was “A Chat with My Censor”. In this chapter, Drakulic tells of Inspector M from the State Security Police requesting a meeting with her. She is a journalist whom is known for writing articles that challenge the communist politics. While she is known for this, she has never written anything that should upset the state as far as she can remember. During this chapter she talks about how she is unsure as to why the Inspector wants to meet with her and if she is in trouble. This immediately lets us know what kind of life it was for a civilian under the communist regime. It was a life filled with fear and apprehension about every little action or word you did or said which could come back and affect your life immensely. The second chapter also allows us to more accurately paint a picture of life under communism. “How we Survived Communism” tells of Drakulic and her experiences with her family and friends saving everything possible to be reused in some way in fear of losing the product in the future. Communism was a time of severe poverty and caused people to fear even worse poverty for the future.
The two primary concepts of each chapter mentioned above are included in the important things Drakulic talks about. Communism brings a fear to the work place, stopping freedom of speech, poverty is not escapable under this type of government, and the third important aspect talked about was how communism destroys the individual. Communism takes away all the basic values of individuality. They instill fear in people under their control and remove every freedom humans cherish. These two chapters we read, through insight into Drakulic’s experiences, allow us to see all the negative aspects of communism in its entirety. As mentioned before, saving all goods in a family is a normal practice for those under the communist regime. In reference to the second chapter we read, panty hose, shoeboxes, cans and old pants were how they survived communism. By saving these, they were preparing for their future which they clearly didn’t see as a bright or prosperous one as long as they were controlled by communism.
All of these aspects stated in Drakulic’s chapters we read are what I pictured communism to be. We have always been taught how every time communism attempts to succeed, it falls to horrible results. The ideology of communism is not a bad concept and this is recognized throughout history but each time it is utilized, it never works. In reading Drakulic’s chapters, it further emphasizes what a failure communism has turned out to be and strengthens what we have been previously taught.
The two chapters we read of “How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed” revealed a lot about life under communist regime. Life was tough and was lived under constant fear for the future. People were afraid to voice their true opinions and views and didn’t feel comfortable relying on the government because they felt that it was unaware of what was really going on with the nation’s citizens.
One thing that the author said that I felt was really crucial as to how the people felt was when she said “If the politicians had only had a chance to peek into our closets, cellars, cupboards, and drawers- looking not for forbidden books or anti-state material- they would have seen the future that was in store for their wonderful plans for communism itself. But they didn’t look” (page 189). The plans the government made were not really for the people at all. And this is what the citizens felt on a day to day basis. They were on their own. Robin Morgan also went to say how people lived in poverty, but not normal kind that one can find in any given nation, but a poverty in which everyone was poor. This was the way everyone in the country lived.
Something that really stuck out to me was the mop that the author had used to growing up. Only when I say mop, what I really mean is a broom and a pair of old pants. This was looked at as normal to Morgan until a friend pointed out that that wasn’t actually how the rest of the world lived. It just goes to show how these strange, but necessary, actions and precautions that were taken came to be a part of everyday life.
The last chapter that I read was titled “How We Survived Communism.” This chapter was entirely about how the family collected everything they could get their hands on. This is important because it really shows that their idea of “surviving” truly went to the most extreme measures. The family collected things such as pantyhose, rubber bands, and even plastic bags. Not only were these collected but they were used over and over again for multiple uses (when it could no longer be used for one thing, it was turned into a tool for another). It was only when the object lost all use it could possibly have that it was tossed out. The people really didn’t know what the future held and therefore did not want to let go of anything that might be useful later on for some unforeseen use at that time.
This picture of communism was not surprising to me at all. I knew the people could not truly be happy the way they were living and the fact that they were living off of whatever they could get fit right into that picture that I had in my mind. It is unfortunate that these people had to live the way they did, and these two chapters that I read really just enforced the vision I had previously had of communism.
The two chapters, A Chat with My Censor and How we Survived, shows the reader about what it was like living under a communist regime. The chapters were not about living in fear from the government or trying to escape but just how to get along. The second chapter taught us how ordinary things like panty hose, shoeboxes, cans and old pants are sacred in a Communist regime household and that you should never throw anything away. The panty hose should be either repaired by a seamstress or used in other ways. Old pants can be turned into a mop; the shoe box can be turned into almost a computer and old cans can be helpful in any situation.
Some things that I thought were interesting as I read were how she wrote for a political magazine and yet she didn’t belong to the party. I thought that you would never have been able to hold such a precious position without swearing your allegiance. I also thought that it was interesting that everyone just went along with being censored. I mean the author was being hit on in a very creepy fashion yet the boss just said it was fine because his office was being bugged, probably by the same Inspector M.
Overall these two excerpts taught what it was really like living under a communist regime. I thought that this quote near the end of the second chapter just summed everything up. ““I think these drawers of my grandma’s show not only how we survived communism, but why communism failed: it failed because of distrust, because of fear for the future.”
After reading these exceprts, I was shocked as to how communism brought about great poverty and deprevation to these people. It revelaed to me the negatives of a communism government, and made me wonder why a country would ever think of implementing a government like this.
The people living within the control of the Communist Party were far behind with modern inventions and technology and lacked everyday tools/supplies which we take advantage of daily. I invisioned communism being a government where everything is rationed out. The government is in full control of the economy, and goods are distributed equally amoungst its citizens. Ideally I thought that a government like this would be somewhat beneficial in trying to rebuild a country and its economy. These excerpts however showed me a side of communism which is flawed and in the end will always fail. The Communist Party was successful in making sure goods were distributed equally, but what they failed to do was to allow its people to have access to foreign goods which were possibly more advanced or better than their homeland goods. This caused everyone to be far behind in the advancements being made around the world, and the people were forced to be stuck in poverty which was impossible to get out of.
Ordinary life under communist regime was harsh and unpredicatble. The state security police always kept an eerily close watch on you. You would have to be constantly proving your innconce and loyalty to your country, even if the event in question ocurred ten to twenty years ago. You never knew what would or would not be available to at the stores the next day, which led to a lifestyle consisting of recycling and collecting. This lifestyle, as the author perfectly noted, led to fear of the future and distrust within a government, leading to communismy failing.
One important thing that the author talked about was the fact that the people were forced into a lifestyle filled with poverty, recycling, and collecting. There was no opportunity for one to make a better life for oneself. The only way to fix this lifestyle which was to get rid of the current communist government and replace it with a different type. Another important thing noted was that the government had a “vast and inefficient bureaucracy” and that one was always trying to “survive in a system that is designed to destroy the individual.” I had never viewed communism in these terms, but they are very accurate. The state security police would interpret your actions in the most negative and anti-nationalist way possible. They were also able to make things up in order to protect their job position. The government was so strict that it had designed a structure of either to hunt or be hunted, which made its people always on edge and distrusting government officials and other people whom one look towards as their leaders. A third thing mentioned by the author was that communism failed because of distrust and fear for the future. Politicians were not grasping how much poverty the people were going through and that the government they set up did not allow for anyone to move up economically. The government restrictions led to people unsure about the future, which then turned into fear. People also had lack of faith with the system of government. Citizens began to wonder how strong its government is if they cannot even consistantly provide nesessities such as soap, shampoo and other household products used daily.
Panty hose, shoeboxes, cans and old pants relate to the title of the final chapter because these were the things that when recycled allowed for people to survive communism (the title of the chapter). Normally we would throw these things out once we were done with these things. People under communist regime however would find other purposes and uses from these things and continue to re-use them until they were finally worn out. This is the only way that they could survive, for modern inventions were not available to them, so they had to invent their own version of these inventions using the tools they had. You could store things in abundance using cans and shoeboxes, and find random uses such as mopping the floor with panty hose and old pants. To us this seems rediculous, but to them living during that time, it was the only way they could live through the communist regime.
These two chapters that we read show an excellent view of life under communism at this time. They show how sheltered a life people lived, and how limited they were at the time. In the beginning, Drakulic shows how she is a journalist who is limited in what she can say because the public was not allowed to hear all of the truths at that time. At her work, there were cameras in her boss's room. They were under surveliance at their work. It shows how limited people were in the information that they were allowed to share with the public.
The second chapter of this showed what a deficit the people were in, and just how difficult life was at the time.
The first thing the author said I thought was important was how the journalist compared her job to the job of the Policeman that came. They both were out to seek information. I thought it was interesting because it is true. And since they had the information that they could not share, it shows how the public must have felt not knowing the complete truth about their lives. The second thing I thought was important was mentioning all the shortages. Everything that was used in everyday life was out of stock at one point, and cuased great hardships for the people of this time. The final thing that I found important was how people adapted to life at this time. They sought new ways to utilize everyday household objects into things you would have never imagined.
The list of things relates to the title of the chapter because those items are how people survived communism by making everything into something it wasn't in order to survive.
I think I would have expected this to be thepicture of communism because it was a very hard time with not alot of diversity and supplies to get through life
The two excerpts from the book, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed, provided a very good look into the lives of the common people under a communist system. It shows the unique ways in which these people learned to survive and even enjoy themselves while being oppressed by communist rule. Ordinary items, such as old shoe boxes, plastic bags and pantyhose were cherished and constantly recycled for reuse in another way. Unlike the people of today’s society, citizens viewed these objects as crucial to completing everyday tasks, and would not put anything to waste. Throughout the two chapters, the author talks about how communism instilled a fear of the feature in society and attempted to erase the role of the individual. Communism was successful in bringing fear to the workplace, stopping freedom of speech and creating a situation in which it was nearly impossible to escape poverty. In the first chapter the author talks about how party members would sensor the contents of newspapers, making sure that no one released any views that went against the government ideals. A citizen’s freedom of press was taken away from them and thus the government continued to steer societal views away from the western influences of capitalism. This in turn, created a situation in which people were left behind the other advancements around the world and were instead stuck in poverty. The excerpts from this book also touch upon the fact that communism removes the role of the individual from society. It focuses on the community as a whole and there is nothing for an individual person to gain. They cannot improve their position in society in any way and thus poverty is a very hard thing to avoid. Families feel the need to save everything and reuse everyday items as they prepare for a future of communist rule. They have no hope for a brighter future and thus the basic values of individuality are erased. Therefore pantyhose, shoeboxes, cans and old pants relate to the title of the last chapter as they were the things that people held on to, helping them struggle through the communist influence on society. Overall, the picture created by the events of these two chapters agrees with my view of communism and its affect on a society. While the basic outline of communist ideals do have some logic to them, no country has yet to produce the results that have been promised. The idea that everyone in society is given equal opportunity is a good concept, but until someone can make it work, the people of society are much better off without a communist influence in their everyday lives. These excerpts were very successful in providing an insight to the ways in which ordinary people survived through these tough times.
These two chapters from “How we Survived Communism and even Laughed” by Slavenka Drakulic, was unusually descriptive and insightful. Readers were able to grasp a fundamental understanding of life under Communist rule, and also develop analytical viewpoints on their life styles. Right of the bat, the Author introduces a sense of the unknown, not only does the chapter open up with “I don’t look like what I am”; immediately shrouding the SDB in a cloak of darkness, but also the questions asked by the main character such as “How does he dress? What does eh do with his hands while he talks to be? Immediately hints us to the tension and anxiety that most people living under communist rule dealt with on the regular basis. She was not even aware whether she had committed any crime against the government or not. Imagine living in a world, in which you have no clue what your enemies look like, and that he/she could be anyone around you. The poverty of communism also was reflected in this reading, as recycling seemed to be performed religiously, actually, not recycling, more like “reusing”. Although Communism promised a equal wealth and equal resources to all, this often lead to a very short food supply and also the government was not able to accommodate all of its citizen with the promised amenities. One of the most frightening things revealed in this text happened to be the lack of individuality in the communist society, as if these people under the communist rules were not people at all, that they lacked individualistic and unique traits that all people should have. Regiments, rules, and conducts seemed to regarded as above anything, including individual personality and in the end variance of human nature. The fact that so much work went into assiduously trying to save objects, and store for the future, also surprised me. In conclusion, one theme that we should clearly obtain, is that these people were not happy under communist rule. Fear, poverty and in the end the toughness of communist life, seems to overburden most of the population.
By reading “A Chat with My Censor” and “How We Survived Communism” by Slavenka Drakulic we learned what a civilians life is like under a communist regime. The first chapter we read was “A Chat with My Censor” in which Drakulic tells us about the events leading up to and the actual meeting with Inspector M. Drakulic was a journalist who may have challenged the communist ideas, but never violated anything to offend the government officials. Throughout this chapter Drakulic is trying to figure out why the inspector wants to meet with her, and she ultimately becomes to fear the meeting. By telling us this, Drakulic lets us know that when living under a communist regime one is always living under fear and anxiety about what they may have done or said. The people were watched by the government at almost all times, and they even had microphones in offices so that they could monitor what was going on. At the end of this chapter Drakulic also states that a person may not actually be guilty of something, but the inspector can make up evidence to charge people with. This shows how unfair and corrupt the whole system of communism is. The next chapter was entitled “How We Survived Communism” and it portrayed the every day life of a civilian under communism. Drakulic spoke of first hand experiences about the poverty she lived in, and how they had to recycle absolutely everything. The people also collected everything they could, because they never knew when a necessity was going to become unattainable. I never thought that a communist regime would cause so much poverty. Communism as a concept seems like a good idea, and ideally it should work very well, but when it is implemented it never seems to work. I thought that Communism meant that the government rationed everything equally among the people, but the way Drakulic describes life it shows that there was a shortage of almost everything. I don’t understand how a government could allow its people to suffer the way Drakulic and her family did.
One of the important things that I think Drakulic talked about was the fact that the people could not escape poverty. No matter what they were stuck and they couldn’t work themselves out of it unless the Communist regime was overthrown. The second important thing I think Drakulic discussed was how Communism takes away individuality. Communism takes away all the basic freedoms and causes people to constantly live with fear. The last thing that I think was really important was that the author gave her opinion on why Communism failed. She said that it failed and would always fail because there was no trust between the people and the government. There was also a constant fear for the future among the people.
Household items such as pantyhose, shoeboxes, cans, jars, and old pants all relate to the title of the last chapter because they were all necessary to surviving Communism. By reusing these articles and making them into different things people were able to survive. Although we are used to throwing things out, the people under Communist Regimes have to recycle these types of things to live. Shoeboxes and cans were used to store things while pants and pantyhose could be used for things such as mops or for tying something together. Household objects were used repeatedly until they were no longer reusable. These two chapters were very effective and informative on how people live through and are able to survive Communist Regimes.
After reading excerpts from “How we Survived Communism and even Laughed,” I found that those living under communist governments did not suffer as much as the American people were led to believe. In the first chapter, the author is called by her censor, which causes her to think about the things that she might have done wrong. I originally believed that in the Soviet Union most people lived in fear of the government. The United States teaches about the secret police forces and other ways the Soviet leaders had of locating traitors to the government. The author’s tone as she wrote about her meeting with the censor did show slight nerves, but it did not reflect what I originally believed. She had never thought that subscribing to six Western magazines, traveling to the West, or writing politically controversial articles would cause a problem. She was not a member of the Socialist Party, and was in many groups against the main ideas of socialism, but she did not consider herself as someone against the government. The censor also did not believe that she was a traitor, and had even taken steps to ensure her protection. It was not as frightening as I expected a meeting like that would have been.
The second chapter also surprised me because no one she knew appeared to be against the Soviet government, although they all showed signs of not trusting it. They kept old pantyhose, boxes, jars, and pants that they could put to many uses. She quotes uses quotes from her family members to portray how little faith people placed on the government’s ability to provide for the people, yet she never seems to be angered by it. She never mentions the way things should have been done differently. The chapter’s title “How We Survived Communism,” relates to the chapter because the people did survive off of the things they saved. It was up to the citizens in the country to ensure their survival because the government did little to help them.
I think three things that the author says that are important focus around the fact that communism was not all bad. She says that people who lived during that time continue to save things the way that they did. If the time had been horrible, people would not continue the same practices of a regime that they despised. I also think it’s important that the chat with her censor was not horrible and that she was fine. Most people assume that censors only went after traitors or people that would be killed by the government, but the author had nothing to worry about during her chat, and her bossed reassured her of that. Lastly, I think it’s important when the author says at the end that a government that the people cannot trust will never work out. The people living under Soviet control saved everything in case there was ever a shortage. They did not have faith that their government would be able to protect them, and they also did not believe that the government had enough control to keep the economy going. This lack of faith, she believes, may have led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and communism.
From this article one can conclude a lot about the life of citizens who lived under a communist government. For one thing it is very apparent that the citizens themselves lived in meager conditions. The citizens appears to lack everything from food to clean clothes. Moreover, the government officials live in their own isolated world because the officials are rich and fail to understand the people. Despite the fact that they check up on everyone who might be suspicious. For the author said an extremely important fact about those who lived in a communist state the people survived and "beat the system" by adapting. Thus one can say that through this adaptation the people of living in the communist states survived because of this. When I first read this I was shocked how conservative they were in a literal sense. These people who lived in these states were one of a kind by preserving everything. Overall this piece genuinely shocked me through its brutal honesty and realistic descriptions.
Both excerpts from Drakulic’s masterpiece, “How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed” certainly reveal the various aspects individuals encountered in ordinary life under Communist rule. Slavenka Drakulic, was both descriptive and extremely perceptive in both “A Chat with My Censor” and “How We Survived.” Individuals analyzing both excerpts may have certainly came to realizing how life was like under Communist rule.
Initially Drakulic introduces characters questioning various ideas which certainly provide the reader an indication of both the apprehension and concern felt by individuals residing under Communist rule on a day to day basis. The main character within the excerpts provided was certainly unaware of having committed a crime against the state or not. One should certainly attempt the envisioning of such a life in which one is unaware and clueless regarding whom is an enemy and who is an ally. One can conclude that there are certainly flaws within Communism and how such flaws impact individuals in various ways.
Communism certainly assured equality, however failed in doing so. The state was unable to fulfill the commitments made. Drakulic’s works reflected the limited individuality within the communist community. Communism preferred conformity over individualism. In summation the works of Drakulic reflect the discontent individuals carried within regarding communism and how such rule led to their survival in constant fright and poverty.
Slavenka Drukalić’s How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed provided an extremely interesting insight into life in Communist states. It was fascinating in the sense that it showed us some of the aspects of history that we don’t study much, that is, what everyday life was like for ordinary people, and in a way, it made it seem much more tangible and personal.
The two chapters we read revealed certain key aspects of life in Communist Yugoslavia. The first, “A Chat with My Censor,” shows how repressive and autocratic the Communist regime was. Drukalić tells about how the press was closely monitored and censored and how one could be punished for anything from criticizing the state to having connections to other countries. It is so unjust, and it is hard for me to imagine this level of oppression when, here in America, we are used to having certain protected rights, including right to free speech. I thought it was really important when Drukalić said, “The conversation with Comrade Inspector M was absolutely unnecessary. What was important was the time between his call and our meeting, when I began to examine myself, to search for my errors, to look at my life through his eyes, to interrogate myself as my censor would.” This reveals how people lived in fear and didn’t know how if their actions might be misinterpreted and punishable. She also says that, “But I also understand that if he really needs to, he will find evidence even if it doesn’t exist. The guilt I’m talking about is not a question of facts but of their interpretation.” This also shows how unjust and arbitrary the government was. It didn’t really matter if you were actually guilty; it only mattered what the state believed.
The second chapter, “How We Survived Communism” was also a fascinating description of life under the Communists, particularly the collecting of what we consider garbage. I somewhat expected this because, in a way, I can connect to it. My grandmother, who lived through the Revolution in China, still does some of this “collecting” today and stresses never wasting anything. She saves plastic bottles and refills them, she saves disposable utensils, she reuses old plastic bags, she tries to make clothes last as long as possible. I think she’s a little over the top sometimes, but from Drukalić description, that doesn’t even compare to what people did in Communist Yugoslavia, and probably the rest of Eastern Europe. I amazed me the level of collecting these people did, the sheer amount of items they collected – jars, shoe boxes, cans, candy wrappers, and all the creative uses they found for them. It just shows how bad the conditions in these countries were and how tough it was, with the extreme shortage of goods that forced the people to resort to saving and reusing things just to survive. Also, I think it was really profound when the author stated that, “If the politicians had only had a chance to peek into our closets, cellars, cupboards, and draws – looking not for forbidden books or anti-state material – they would have seen the future that was in store for their wonderful plans for communism itself. But they didn’t look.” This quote how the leaders of the Communist states were so out of touch with what was going on in, with public sentiment, and looking back now, it is apparent that Communism there was doomed to fail.
These excerpts from “How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed” were extremely insightful into the lives of those living with communism on a daily basis. The chapter “A Chat with my Censor” was particularly intuitive into how fearful those in the press, as well as other “informative” mediums, were for their jobs due to the pressure put on them to follow the line the party had put in place. The people living with communism clearly feared for their lives while they were in these situations. They did not know who the enemy was, or even if it was from within their own government. And not knowing who your enemy is makes it so much harder to destroy the fear. The communist leaders could have easily known what communism was in store for, but they turned a blind eye and it cost them dearly. The government cared not for its people and so the people were forced to look out for themselves and themselves alone. In order to prepare for the unknown and what was to come; they hid items such as shoeboxes, plastic bags, panty hoes, and cans and saved them to use them as needed for tools and such. They used and saves such items until they could no longer perform the task allotted to them and then they were made to other uses. This is how the people “survived” communism, by using the things they couldn’t get often, or using things they could easily get in place of those things that were hard to come by. The ideal of communism is that everyone is equal in wealth and resources, but this article clearly shows that although equal, much of the communist country-men lived in poverty and there were many shortages for everyone, as opposed to just the lower class. Although the members of the communist party seemed to live very well, the people stuck in poverty due to the “equality” of all in communist controlled countries seemed not to enjoy it very much. The members of the general population seemed stuck in an era of poverty and fear, with no foreseeable escape, this really shows how bad communism really was for everyone.
Communism is a political ideology that has been expressed in so many ways by a myriad of people. Some write that it was beneficial, while most others argue that it was completely and totally detrimental to society. Slavinka Drakulic does a fantastic job in describing the life of the average citizen who has to live in a communist country. These chapters reveal so many issues that people in communist countries had to deal with and the way they conserved everything was very interesting.
One of the main staples of communism is its demand that everyone is equal. However, as history has shown again and again, everyone is equal in a communist country, in that everyone is extremely poor. One of the most important that Drakulic says in the excerpts was that she had to conserve everything. If an old pair of jeans cannot be worn again, they would certainly make for a mop. Another crucial thing she pointed out was that some basic rights that we as Americans have, such as freedom of the press, did not exist in that society. The government had control over everything, and if you did not comply with the government, you would not have a positive future. Finally, her connection regarding how people recycled during communism and how people recycle now was astounding. I had never thought of the things that I save to store items, like old jars, even though they are scattered all over my house.
Pany hose, shoe boxes, cans, and old pants relate to the title of the last chapter very well, because it was by collecting old and unusable panty hose, shoe boxes, cans, and old pants that anybody in a communist society could survive. She makes another good point in saying that politicians promised miracles, but the people were suffering terribly and collecting just to get by.
Drakulic describes perfectly what I imagined communism was. I always imagine poor people with ragged clothes and never a smile on their face trudging along to a store early so they could maybe get milk for that day. I imagine people having very weak personalities, with expressions on their face indicating that they believe there is no hope for the future. My grandmother has told me stories of when she was a younger woman living in a communist country, and Drakulic's account of her experience there is very similar to my grandmother's.
Both articles “A Chat with My Censor” and “How We Survived Communism” give insight as to what it was like for a person to live under a government operating under Communist ideology. In the fist article entitled “A Chat With My Censor” it is made evident that censorship played a significant role in what information was actually read or received by the public at large and how certain information must parallel the ideals of the particular party in power. Therefore, essentially making the jounalist's and editor's speech restrained rather than free. Censorship also leads to an internalized censorship as Drakulic puts it, because since there is an anticipation of one's work to be scrutinized, one is forced to restrain his or her voice.
In the second article, "How We Survived Communism," communism is revealed to cause common people to think of extraordianry ways to conserve objects indespenislbe to survival. The article demonstrates that in the absence of wealth, there is an abundance of frugality and thrift. The title of the article attests to the fact that things such as pantyhose, cardboard boxes, and vases were recycled or conserved in such a way to facilitate survival.
There were many important things that Slavenka Drakulic stated in her articles that were of interest as well as importance. For one, it is very important to note that censorship caused autocensorship or an internalized censorship provoked by the expectation of the Communist regime to disseminate material consistent with their ideology. This amplifies the lack of freedom allotted to a person under a Communist regime, who although may seem to have a voice only has a voice that is filtered by a censor. It also shows how an outward system or an ideeology can internally affect another person subject to its rule. Two other statemetns that Drakulic explains in her argument are how things that may seem strange to the foreigner are precious and of merit to a person surviving communism, and also when she mocks communism as having succeeded to eliminate the disparity of the rich and poor, but has left everyone in essense, poor-in this failure of communism, she laughs. This is not necessarily the picture that I imagined of communism, but it is definitely is not surprising because in such a state of economic repression and poverty people are forced to innovation and deliberate new ways to make so much out of the little that they have.
Slavenka Drakulic’s experience throughout the communist era has brought about countless struggles with poverty, privacy, and security. Ordinary life was complicated and scary because everyone was in fear of running out of goods and ending up disheveled. Vesna and her mother were very smart and clever when they saw the use out of everyday things, things we in a time of prosperity would never think of keeping. The women in this story had to take each day at a time and think about the things that they would need to help them survive, and they used their cleverness to help them find the riches in the rags. According to “A Chat With my Censor”, it seemed like every one was a bit on the edge with all the conflicting politics arising in this era. Slavenka couldn’t even write a magazine article without feeling paranoid about whether it would be suitable enough for the SBD. She, and many others, had to think carefully about what they should say, do, or how they should act in fear of going against the law. One of the three things that I thought was important regarded this topic. She says, “…I began to examine myself, to search for my errors, to look at my life through his eyes, to interrogate myself as my censor would.” (81) She became paranoid just because she didn’t want to have another run in with the censor again. She began to change herself completely just to suit the needs of someone else so she wouldn’t have to go through another meeting. This shows me that people, like Slavenka, lived in great fear of everything they did.
Another important thing that I found in the reading came from the other article. “I think these drawers of my grandma’s show not only how we survived communism, but why communism failed: it failed because of distrust, because of a fear for the future.” (189) If people are scared to live for today, how would they want to live for the future? The whole country was deprived of proper nourishment and it wasn’t even their fault. The way communism worked did not benefit most people, it only made things worse.
I liked the way Slavenka put into perspective of the things she recycled and what she and her mother used them for. Like the jars that could be used to hold anything and everything, such as soap, string, corks, or razor blades. It was a way of collecting other things in the many jars a family already collects. Also, the shoeboxes were used for bills and to hold pictures since most people couldn’t afford a photo album. It made me think of how sometimes I keep things like shoeboxes and jars, but never think of them as essential to my living. In the communist era, little things such as these were labeled as a priority and helped the people survive. It’s amazing to see how much use can be utilized out of such an unwanted leftover and can actually contribute to the well being of each person.
This isn’t what I expected out of communism. I know we have always been taught that it was such a terrible time and the Americans were totally against it, which I agree with. But in a movie we watched in class about the life of the Russians after Stalin died, one woman who was interviewed said that they thought of Stalin as a father who would always look after them. I figured that most Russian people liked the way the government was working at the time of communism if everyone thought of Stalin as a father. I guess from this story, opinions began to change and poverty soon proved that communism was a failure if the people were living in these horrible conditions.
The chapters that we read from the book How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed by Slavenka Drakulic told a lot about life under communist rule. The biggest thing that it showed to me was the shortages that citizens had to endure. These were people living under a government whom did not care about their basic needs. I did know that shortages did occur, what I did not know was how the people endured through them. I gained a true sense of how people survive under the worst circumstances in this book.
The first thing that the author said that I thought was important was on page 81 when she comments, “The guilt I’m talking about is not a question of facts but of their interpretation.” The guilt that she is looking for are errors, not factual but ideological. She started to examine herself after talking to her censor. She started thinking about what is wrong with her piece so it doesn’t get edited out. Another important thing said by the author is a comment made about her mother on page 179, “She [Drakulic’s mother] can find tens of different uses for old stockings or pantyhose.” This shows how adaptable one becomes after years of living with shortages. This is how people use everything around them to live right. The next important thing the author says is when she describes here young life when she put lipstick on bubble gum to make it seem like “Bazooka Joe” bubble gum on page 187. This shows that the people in Soviet Russia were yearning for consumer products for the west. The fact that Drakulic goes through all that trouble to make something from the west shows the oppression of the Soviet government.
The panty hoses, shoeboxes, and cans showed what Drakulic’s family truly did to survive Communism. They did not sit around comfortably. The family adapted themselves to live through shortages by saving everything including panty hoses, shoeboxes, and cans. They did what was needed to be done to survive Communism. Normally the picture of Communism that I get is one of the army, or the Politburo, or the Dictator. What I usually do not see is the everyday lives of the everyday people who lived under Communism. With this book I was able to see just how ordinary life went on in Communist Russia.
The two chapters of “How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed” revealed a lot about life under communist government. I was amazed to see how communism caused great poverty to its citizens. Life for citizens was rough and they had to have a constant fear for their future. Citizens couldn’t publicly declare their opinions because of the fear of the government. It exposed the negatives of a communism government.
Ordinary life under communism was extremely unpredictable. The state always had someone watching you and you could never talk freely. Even if you said something ten years ago you still had to worry about it in the present, like the woman and her hippy past. Life was also unpredictable because you never what would be in the shops or what you would have to save or recycle. Robin Morgan also went to say how people lived in poverty in which everyone was poor.
One thing that the author said that was important was when she said “If the politicians had only had a chance to peek into our closets, cellars, cupboards, and drawers- looking not for forbidden books or anti-state material- they would have seen the future that was in store for their wonderful plans for communism itself. But they didn’t look” (page 189). The plans the government made were not made for the people at all, but only to further the government itself. Because of this the citizens had to deal with everything themselves and not have any dependence on the government. Another thing mentioned by the author was that communism failed because of distrust and fear for the future. Politicians did not comprehend how great the poverty was and that the government they set up did not allow for anyone to be supported economically. The government restrictions led to people unsure about the future. Citizens also began to wonder how strong its government was if they couldn’t consistently provide bare necessities such as soap, shampoo and other household products. If they couldn’t provide these how would they hold up against a real threat? Both of these excerpts showed me that communism is almost always destined to fail. The communist did spread supplies out evenly but they were sub par and they also didn’t offer access to foreign or better goods. This caused a massive movement against the communist and showed how it couldn’t support itself.
Panty hose, shoeboxes, cans and old pants relate to the title of the final chapter because these were the things that when recycled allowed for people to survive communism. Items that would normally be thrown out had to be used again and again until it was impossible to use again. This caused them to have to improvise with what they had, such as making a mop out of a shirt. What would be useless to us was essential for their survival under the communist government.
This picture of communism was not surprising to me at all overall. I suspected that they weren’t happy with their poverty and this only served to prove my suspicions. These chapters served to reinforce my views on must communist governments.
There is something both unique and universal about Slavenka Drakulic’s essays; every subject seemingly common and small, and yet revelatory of enormous social implications. It is writing that looks at the specific, little things, all the while creating a picture that is massive in its proportions. After reading this chapters, it becomes clear how fundamentally different life was under a communist regime; how items like buttons and pantyhose become treasures; how fear and censorship become natural. The more common historical writing, which spends its time examining the “big picture”, would not have been able to convey as clearly as Drakulic did, the far-reaching consequences of communism and the extent to which it differs so from our Western economy.
Essentially, what is revealed to us is a life so foreign, so painfully unrecognizable that we can scarcely condone it. And yet, at the same time, it is still average life—that continues despite politics and war, despite shortages and suffering. The adaptability of the human species cannot be portrayed more vividly. And perhaps it is this that makes Drakulic’s pieces their confusing familiarity. What we see is not just a society completely different from those that we have always known. What we see is not just the faults of communism, the cruelty and fear. What we see is people just like us—ordinary, everyday people, attempting to survive as best they can.
There were three undeniably important points that Drakulic touched upon in her two essays “A Chat with my Censor” and “How We Survived.” I believe the first and foremost to be that of the mean commonness of evil. When we encounter something bad or wrong, we unconsciously expect some sort of outward sign; a hardness of the eyes; a cruelty about the mouth. Perhaps this misconception is left over from our days as cavemen, where, in the natural world, predators could be recognized by the length of their fangs or the silence of their movement. But, as Comrade Inspect M said “’I don’t look like what I am.’” By relating that one sentence, Drakulic touches upon a widespread stereotype, one that we are scarcely willing to admit. It is frightening to imagine that evil comes in all different guises, and that it is not great and terrible, but rather petty and banal. Another matter that she touches on is that of the Soviet “accusation”: a pretty unique situation. But she phrases it in such a way that it becomes something of much greater depth. She writes, “The guilt I’m talking about is not a question of facts but of their interpretation.” The reader is forced wonder what she means. Is this something that she relates to communism alone or does it have general application? After all, everyone interprets facts a different way. But was she referring specifically to the willful misinterpretation employed by the Communists? It is nonetheless a haunting sentence. Finally, I think it very significant that she mentions the predictability of the fall of communism; the evidence of which lay in the very shopping habits of citizens, the desperateness of the unusual ‘everywhere’ poverty. “If the politicians,” she writes, “had only had a chance to peek in our closets, cellars…they would have seen the future that was in store for their wonderful plans of communism itself. But they didn’t look.” Here she clearly shows how the future, the big picture, can be hidden in within ordinary lives, within dressers and drawers.
What is sad, in a way, is the fact that without small, unimportant recycled items, like jars and plastic bags, the people of the Eastern bloc would have allegedly not survived communism. It was only through being forced to live like packrats, to assume the mentality of squirrels and animals storing for the winter, that people were able to live through decades of poverty. When picturing communism, I both expect this and am also disappointed by it. How can an ideal which, in theory, is supposed to end poverty and class barriers, to create a society where no one goes hungry, fail so completely? How can it come full circle and create the very situation it hoped to heal? In practice, communism never works. But it is such a beautiful idea! Dehumanization, unhappiness, necessary adaptation—these are things I expect of communism. But once, just once, I long to see it carried out in perfection, creating the expected utopia on Earth—rather than merely a U.S.S.R.
The two chapters from Slavenka Drakulic’s book greatly showed us what life was like during communist control. She talked about her job as a journalist and how everything was censored. In Drakulic’s first chapter, she describes her meeting with a censor and what is censored. It shows life under communist regime with the censor rules, and how everything is censored. She expresses this by talking about how it is the editor-in-chiefs job to find things that can not go out to the public, and how their office is bugged so that they are not saying bad stuff about the communist regime. In the second chapter Drakulic talks about how they re-use everything because they are not used to having that many supplies available to them. She explains how they re-use yogurt containers and how she uses a pair of men’s pants to clean the floor and that she didn’t realize how weird it was until someone from the west laughed at her for it.
The author said many things that are important to know about the communist regime. One thing that I found important was that she mentioned how her editor-in-chief had to censor everything that was written and how he had a microphone in his office. Another thing I thought was important was about everything that they had to re-use from yogurt to pantyhose, and the final thing I found important was how she didn’t notice how it was weird until someone from the west laughed at her and question some of the things she used.
The Panty hose, shoeboxes, cans and old pants relate to the title of the chapter “How We Survived Communism” because they were used in place of things that were not available because of communism. Each of those things was used in place of a common item. The panty hose, when worn out, were placed with many different things and old pants were used as a mop. Shoeboxes and cans were used for storage. Everything was used until there was no possible way to use it again, which shows how communism affected the supplies that were available to citizens.
How we Survived Communism and even Laughed, is a book written by a journalist named Slavenka Drakulic. The two chapters that I read were “A Chat with my Censor”, and “How We Survived Communism”. Both of these excerpts contradicted my previous view of daily life in a communist country.
In “A Chat with my Censor” Ms. Drakulic described an incident where she had to meet an SDB man. When she first received the call from him, she agreed because of curiosity. However, this curiosity soon turned into anxiety and even fear. Drakulic didn’t know why he wanted to talk to her, so she speculated about all of the possibilities. Since she didn’t consider herself as someone against the government, she thought that her vacations abroad and foreign magazine subscriptions might have upset them. The part that really surprised me was their meeting. Contrary to my speculation, the censor didn’t accuse her of anything. In fact, the meeting was completely unnecessary. Drakulic explained that the important part was “…the time between his call and our meeting…” This is when she “interrogated” herself. She searched for anything she did that might have upset the SBD, and evaluated herself. She referred to this period of time as autocensorship. Although many people in a communist country may not be harassed, everyone lives with some sense of fear.
Many people would be shocked by the meeting between Ms. Drakulic and her censor, because they often assume that policemen in communist countries were all ruthless. I thought that Drakulic would’ve been interrogated and possibly taken away rather than let go without even a threat. This conversation supports her thesis, in which she refutes the popular belief of communist countries. Although there is great poverty, the government is not as ruthless as most people believe.
In the chapter “How We Survived Communism”, Drakulic discusses the never-ending process of recycling and collecting that goes on in communist countries. She explains all of the ways in which panty hose, shoeboxes, cans, jars and old pants can be reused. By collecting and saving these items, she was fully prepared for a future with great shortages. This is how the people survived communism. She says that almost nothing is thrown out in a communist household. People reused common household items until they were no longer able to because they had great fear. They were afraid that these items would disappear from the stores. This is why everyone collected and recycled items. It was extremely important when Vesna’s mother explained, “What do you know, a civil war might break out any minute.” Nobody could be sure of anything in communist countries. I was surprised when Drakulic wrote that people would only throw something out unless they were absolutely sure that it no longer served any purpose. This truly conveys the fear in Eastern Europe. Another aspect of communist life was the lack of privacy. The living conditions destroyed all privacy that existed, so people became accustomed to meeting other people in bathrobes, or ratty clothes. Drakulic wrote, “We are hungry for things and afraid of the future”. This is one of the most important lines in the chapter because it coveys the overall theme in communist life. The people in Eastern Europe didn’t always have to save everything. There were times of shortages and times of excess, but a sense of distrust always prevailed. The people trusted their government very little, so they prepared themselves for a tough future.
Overall, I was surprised by these essays. I knew that there was a vast amount of poverty in Eastern Europe, but I didn’t know of the “recycling” that the average person would perform. I also wasn’t aware of the distrust of the government. Drakulic saved clothes, jars, etc… because she was afraid of the outcome of her country. These two essays outlined the failures of communism.
Under the definition of communism, the people are all to be equal- in their status, what they have, their work, and their lifestyle. However, by the US anti-communism nature of teaching, it is hard to imagine something close to that logical definition. Instead, communism makes brings to mind vision of a society as we read about in Animal Farm- a society where we, the omniscient reader, saw a society where authorities had power and thrived while the rest below them suffered.
These excepts did not erase that picture of suffering- if anything it enhanced it- however, these readings did bring me back to remember the logical, straightforward definition of communism. If all people are going to be equal, then it is not a fast route to raise all people to the top of society. However, it is easy enough for authorities to push them down in society, to the levels of poverty the author described. To make it through lives of poverty, nothing can be wasted- this was a major point. Hence, everything and anything people might throw away must be reused over and over and over again. Panty hose, which we now toss after one rip, were saved for many creative purposes, in addition to shoeboxes, cans, and old pants- all for the purpose of surviving through poverty and communism until whatever follows. However, in this situation, it is not a hope for the future. Instead, the author states many times, that was a fear for the future that caused people to struggle to save everything. The people could not depend on their government- so instead, they had to be independent. But also, they were interdependent among themselves- not just neighbors, but complete strangers. The censor could have gotten the author into serious trouble- and in turn, the author could have been much bolder in reaction to the sensor. Neither took such rash actions, because they both knew it to be easier to cooperate. What the government doesn’t know can’t hurt.
Drakulic has given readers a very quick look into the depressing and often controversial life that was faced by those who lived under Communist rule. The very beginning of “A Chat with my Censor” shows the fear that every writer has to deal with. Her first response to getting the phone call was that of complete horror and shock. The initial fear was that something had slipped past her when she was reviewing the writing, and that the censors had decided to take matters into their hands. I cannot comprehend what it would be like to have to live with a constant fear that every word you speak could be your last, assuming the government doesn't like it.
That fear of a constant and fore-bearing death brought about by simply speaking your mind and voicing an opinion was my first important realization from these chapters. I rely so heavily on the ability to speak out against the actions of the corrupt and to satirize the government that it is unbelievable that someone would take that right away. Another important thing that I took from the articles was the sheer hopefulness of all who lived in a Communist regime. How can someone so utterly oppressed and dominated still maintain a joyous and happy demeanor? It seems to me an impossibility. Finally, I was surprised by the ingenious, albeit necessary, use of all objects around.
The example of the mop that Drakulic used, for instance, shows precisely the ingenuity of those in dire situations such as hers. Attaching a shirt to a broom would be, to any of those in America, an odd thing to do as opposed to just buying a mop. To those under the Communist regime, however, it was vital to their survival, and that relates directly to the title of the chapter. They would clean and reuse any bag, can, container, or whatever they could find until it was unusable. This not only showed the resourcefulness of those under a dominating regime, but it also shows what was needed for her and her friends to survive Communism. This is certainly more severe than I expected life in Communist regimes to be like.
After reading those two chapters from Slavenka Drakulic’s book, I know I have a much clearer understanding of what life was like under communism during that time. Never before did realize how short of a leash this people were kept on. The first example of the limitations placed on these people is found when Drakulic talks about how limited she was as a journalist, because she was not allowed to expose the truths of what was really going on at the time to the public. Her every move was monitored; there were even surveillance cameras in her boss’s office. It shows how sheleterd these people were and how their government tried to keep them in constant state of naivete and limit self-dependence.
The second chapter that I read highlighted the deprivation of their lives.
The first thing the author said I thought was important was how the journalist compared her job to the job of the Policeman. They both were out to seek information. And since they had the information that they could not share, it shows how the public must have felt not knowing the complete truth about their lives. The only problem is that the job of a news reporter is to report information, not make up facts or hide the facts that they’ve gathered. This shows how even when one got a job, it wasn’t really their job it was like an activity they were engaging in that was controlled by the govt. Everything that was used in everyday life was out of stock at one point or another, and created a lot of difficult situations for people. I get pretty pissed when I go to the grocery store and they don’t have any ripe bananas so it’s hard for me to imagine them being out everything. However, I did find the way people adapted to their lackluster lives at this time to be pretty interesting. They came up with all kinds of new ways to utilize everyday household objects to make up for the things they didn’t have. The list of things relates to the title of the chapter because those items are how people survived communism by making everything into something they weren’t actually intended for. Basically it was there resourcefulness and ingenuity that kept them going. All in all this is sort of the picture I had of communism only like times ten.
For reading material, we read two chapters from "How We Survived and Even Laughed," by Slavenka Drakulic. Both chapters depicted what life was like for those who had to live under a communist regime. The first chapter was about how the security police requested a meeting with her. She reveals that she is a journalist that is critical of the communist political structure. During this section she shows how the visit with the inspector is troubling her, because she is fearful that she has done something wrong. Communist Governments were known notoriously in installing fear into those who opposed the Government. This is an easy example of how real the fear was for people who actually lived under a communist form of government.
The second chapter was "How We Survived Communism" Showed us how people used their daily items, and how they kept everything possible to be used repeatedly. The future to them was unknown. Therefore, they made sure that every object imaginable had been used to its fullest. Just one more thing people had to fear in this society, what will happen to them in the future and what does the future hold. People had no idea if the products they use every day were going to be there tomorrow. So, that was the significance of saving up these everyday items.
These two articles really showed what it was like to live under a Communist form of Government and what challenges they had to face in everyday life. For us as Americans, it is difficult to really know what life is like under such harsh conditions, and it makes me really think how good we have it here. The fear that people have of their own government and the fact that if they say something publicly critical about it, they are putting themselves in danger. It just further emphasizes the point that Communism is by no means a perfect form of Government, and in many situations fails to help those under it.
SHOUT OUT TO SLIM KIP!
After reading those two chapters from Slavenka Drakulic’s book, I know I have a much clearer understanding of what life was like under communism during that time. The first chapter that I read revealed to me how starved for information they were. The first thing the author said that stuck out in my mind was how the journalist compared her job to the job of the Policeman. Both of these individuals were out to seek information. However, they were not allowed to share the information they had gathered. This made me think about how the public must have felt not knowing the complete truth about their lives. They were walking around playing pretend and they didn’t even know it. This shows how even when a person thought they had freedom and could choose their own occupation, they really weren’t. They might have chosen their job but what they did on the job was not up to them. The first example of how monitored these people were also relates to Drakulic’s job as a journalist. Her every move was monitored; there were even surveillance cameras in her boss’s office. This shows how little the amount of privacy was that these people had and how their government tried to keep them in constant state of limited self-reliance.
Everything that was used in everyday life was out of stock at one point or another, and created a lot of difficult situations for people could never imagine not being able to get the luxuries that I and many other Americans would consider necessities, let alone real necessities. However, I did find the way people adapted to their sparse lives to be pretty interesting. They came up with all kinds of new ways to utilize everyday household objects to make up for the things they didn’t have. The list of things relates to the title of the chapter because those items are how people survived communism by making everything into something they weren’t actually intended for. Basically it was there ingenuity and perseverance that kept them going.
Ryan Kipfer
Mr. Kirby
AP Euro
5/7/08
By reading “A Chat with My Censor” and “How We Survived” I, along with many other readers, have been given even more insight as to what it was like to live under a communist regime. “A Chat with My Censor” demonstrates the use of censorship by the government and its actual effect on the news and how it was relayed to the public. In essence, this contrasts the complete idea of freedom of speech because the government decided what the people should and shouldn’t know. Drakulic also refers to an internalized censorship which is basically the idea that people write more conservatively for fear of being censored or reprimanded. This has as much of an effect on society as government censorship because, either way you look at it, the people are not being told everything/the whole truth.
The second selection, “How We Survived” discusses the everyday life of people under the communist regime. Drakulic writes of the extreme poverty that she lived in. I was shocked to see the poverty caused by this type of government. To apply this to a real world situation, I know of Russia’s very poor people but I assumed them to be a result of the fall of their government not a result of their actual government. I was also under the impression that communist governments divided all assets of the government equally among all of the people; however these chapters proved me very wrong.
Panty hose, shoeboxes, cans, and old pants relate to the title of the final chapter because they show how they survived living through the poverty. They used anything and everything of value to help make their lives easier. If it could be used again it was and if it could be used for a new task it was as well. Everything was about saving money and getting as much use out of your dollars as possible.
This picture of communism is somewhat like what I would expect. I knew the people under communist governments were very suppressed but the extent was completely unknown to me. I did not expect the poverty to be what it was nor did I realize that people suffered so greatly. Drakulic successfully reveals these aspects of communism because of her adherence to detail as well as the fact that this is all firsthand account. These pieces have definitely changed my viewpoint on communist countries to an even lower level then it was before, and I can definitely see why the greater powers wanted to halt the spread of communism so badly.
WHAT’S UP MIKE?
The two chapters from Slavenka Drakulic’s book How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed provide the reader with chilling insight regarding everyday life in a communist regime. The author writes about typical experiences encountered in her daily life. The title of the chapter “A Chat With My Censor” is ironic for the word “censor” implies not a chat, but rather an interrogation. Indeed even though the media surveillance inspector is disarming and likeable, it is evident that he is warning Ms. Drakulic, a journalist, who is known for her candor regarding communist policies. This “little outing of a conversation” was of course a wakeup call to Slavenka that regardless of the man’s innocent and humble appearance, one must never trust anybody under any circumstances. In particular, this would especially apply to any strangers who would have ties that are linked to the government, the most powerful enemy in a Communist society. The most substantial clue was revealed to Slavenka when her boss pointed to the hidden microphone that was located between the ceiling panels of his office. The message conveyed to her was that one is never “alone” in a communist world, whether the setting is at an office or an apartment building. Just the mere suggestion of censorship caused the author to “examine myself, to search for my errors, to look at my life through his eyes, to interrogate myself as my censor would.” (p. 81).
The habitual collecting and recycling of household items in the chapter “How We Survived” reminds me of some stories related to me by my grandparents who lived during the Great Depression. Children who attended school often wore cardboard taped on the bottom of the worn out soles of their shoes. It wasn’t unusual for people to hide money under their mattresses, attics, and even in toilet tanks. This portrays at most a minimal fraction of what other citizens experienced within Communist countries. By having to depend solely on what people currently had, as well as having to reutilize possessions, citizens were forced to appreciate what they had regardless of what it was worth. In a way this was a tactic of brainwashing people from enjoying any form of ownership or feeling superior to one’s fellow colleagues, especially the government officials themselves. In the scenario of Communism, the government has full control over its citizens and is considered “above” all of the citizens.
Pantyhose, shoeboxes, cans, and old pants relate to the title of the final chapter because they are common everyday items that had to be reused because supplies were limited and at times nonexistent. In our capitalist society we would not consider repairing pantyhose, washing the floor with a broom covered with a pair of man’s pants, or using shoeboxes to store photos and very old bills. In order to survive, people relied solely on reusing whatever items they had and not on the promises made by the politicians. Citizens in a communist country collect objects that are meant to be discarded because they don’t really have faith that their government will provide for them. As the author states, “Collecting was a necessity, because deep down nobody believed in a system that was continuously unable to provide for its citizens’ basic needs for forty years or more.” (p.189)
I wasn’t completely surprised by the picture of Communism that emerged from these chapters. Shortly after the collapse of Communism, my paternal grandparents visited the U.S.S.R. They expected that the living conditions would be better than the American media reports had suggested, for they believed that there must be an element of propaganda influencing the reports. They were appalled by the impoverished conditions that they observed in the U.S.S.R. There were a very limited variety of goods in the food markets, retail shops, and pharmacies. The fresh produce that was available was of such inferior quality that it would never have been stocked in a grocery store in the United States. While standing in line to view Lenin’s tomb, my grandparents and several others were abruptly pulled out of line and swiftly whisked off to a room where they were searched. It was a very intimidating, demeaning, and frightening experience. However, their visit was only a slight taste of what average citizens living under a Communist regime had to observe day after day. With such strict and harsh laws of compliance, it was virtually impossible for one to stand up to the government before one was jailed or sent to a prison camp for hard labor. Still I was not aware of the shortages and recycling of ordinary household items, considered necessities in our society, that people experience on a daily basis.
In these excerpts the author exemplifies some of the reasons that Communism has not succeeded. Communism ignores individual freedoms and the personal needs of its constituents. The lack of freedom of expression and speech encourages distrust and paranoia. Censorship is not the exception, but rather the norm. The government dictates what it feels that people need, not what people might want. Communism is based on everyone being equal, but human nature indicates otherwise. Individuals have different motivations and goals. By its very nature, Communism supports mediocre performance because it does encourage or reward individual creativity, productivity, or quality. Individual contributions to society are not valued, so societal standards are at best ordinary and mundane rather than exceptional.
These two chapters reveal a lot about the ordinary life of people under communism. However, the common theme between these two chapters is fear, and how fear is something these people experience every day. In “A Chat with my Censor”, Drakulic explains about a meeting with Comrade Inspector M. “My curiosity was quickly replaced by fear” (77). Drakulic explains that it wasn’t the meeting with the censor that was scary; it was the fear of the system of communism itself. Drakulic explains how she almost felt pity for the censor, who was just following orders. Finally Drakulic explains how the communist system used fear as an advantage to succeed. Thinking about what the censor could potentially find, and reviewing the past events in her life, made Drakulic fear the system so that, “we don’t need to chat with our censors too often” (81). Even then, the fear still lingers, because she says that guilt can be manufactured off of interpretation, not evidence. The life of an ordinary citizen was fear of the system.
“How We Survived” explains the daily shortages and sufferings that people under communism dealt with daily. There was always a need to save every item because of shortages. The pantyhose, shoeboxes, cans and old pants signify the fear of the future, and the “communist household is almost the perfect example of an ecological unit”. They were able to survive communism by collecting and recycling so as to have supplies during shortages. They would use one object and turn it into many more different functions. It is the “ecology of poverty” where nothing is wasted. For example, the glass jars can hold anything imaginable, and be a vase or a pot if you need it to be. The old pants as a mop signified Drakulic’s reluctance to throw anything out. While her friend thought it was odd because she could just buy a mop, Drakulic remembered communism and the fear of shortages. The shoebox is the person’s life story. This again relates to fear because the shoe box is a treasure trove of data (receipts, bills, etc.) in a “system that is designed to destroy the individual”. By having these items, one can survive communism and avoid the fear of the system. There was also fear of the system and fear of the future. The grandma kept the drawer full of plastic bags from 20 years ago because of distrust because as the story says, “deep down nobody believed in a system that was continuously unable to provide for its citizens’ basic needs” (189). Ordinary life was full of shortages and fear of the system. This relates to the final chapter, because by saving every material item, one was able to survive in the world of communism, where shortages of every item were frequent.
The author had many good points about living with communism. However I think her reasons about why communism failed are very important. She says that communism failed because of distrust and a fear for the future. This is a good point because the people saved every material object for the future, because they were afraid of what the situation would be like then. It also shows the people’s lack of faith in the government providing for them. Another important idea was the idea of the mythical “abroad” which signified anything beyond communism. This is important because foreign objects signified hope and a better and more desirable world to people in the east. These beautifully designed objects were part of a world free of shortages and communism, which is what the people wanted. Lastly Drakulic makes a point about the communist system. “The guild I’m talking about is not a question of facts but of their interpretation” (81). This is significant because it shows the power of the communist party over people’s daily lives, and how they can instill such fear in a person. It paints a picture as to the influence of communism in people’s lives, and the fear they felt about the system. This is the picture of communism I expected. The picture painted by Drakulic is one of shortages, despair and fear in the communist system. I pictured a world of many shortages, and a fear of “Comrade Inspector M”, and the communist system in general.
These two chapters, “A Chat with My Censor” and “How We Survived Communism,” are both from Slavenka Drakulic’s book, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed. These two chapters explain to the reader what life was like under the Communist’s rule of Eastern Europe.
The fist chapter was, “A Chat with My Censor.” This chapter goes into detail the stress and struggles that people went through during the communist era. Slavenka Drakulic was a journalist, but never wrote controversial pieces that would upset the government. But when she learns that Inspector M and the State Security Police want to talk to her, she begins to think about all the “bad things” that she could have done. She realizes that the government put fear into the minds of innocent people. She says that the government has gotten innocent people to admit to things that they never did. During her meeting with Inspector M, Slavenka Drakulic finds out that her name and phone number were in the address book of a man who had recently been arrested. She had never even heard of the man before, but because she was somehow linked to him, she was being inspected by the government.
The second chapter that we read was “How We Survived Communism.” This chapter shows how life was for Slavenka Drakulic, her family, and her friends during the communist era. The communists instilled fear into innocent people’s everyday lives. Slavenka Drakulic finds it very silly that her mother is making her save all her old panty-hose. Her mother saved everything that she could because they never knew when that product would no longer be available for them to buy. Life under the communist government was a life full of poverty.
Through Slavenka Drakulic’s descriptions of communist, it is exactly how I pictured it. People’s lives were full of poverty and despair. They were constantly living in fear of the government. Many innocent people were arrested and sent away for things that they never did. These two chapters that we read just emphasized how communism is not a good way to run a country. The concept of communism is all that bad, but throughout history, every time a country has tried to become a communist nation, it has failed. This article just describes the failure of communism in a more vivid and comical way.
How We Survived Communism
by William Si
Although AP European history is a fun subject to lean, there is a lot of reading to get through. Not only do we have to read our text book but we have excerpts such as "A Chat with My Censor" and "How We Survived." Being as unique as they are, they give us a look at life under communist regime.
Looking into the packet titled "A Chat with my Censor," it described the situation with government censorship. Unlike other countries now, it is similar where people cannot freely express their ides. For Drakulic, an inspector actually comes from the State Security Police to have a talk. Although her articles are critical, she thinks that it shouldn't have done any harm. However, she is still fearful as well as others whose ideas are being suppressed under the same fear.
However, taking a contrasting look, "How we Survived" takes a deep look at the life of the people under poverty. Communism was supposed to help the people but taking a look, it is surprising that the government is leading up to this kind of life where people are unsure about their own futures and are collecting everything that is reusable. Items such as panty hose, shoe boxes, cans and old pants are kept for future reuses as nothing is permanent enough to know it will be there further down the line of time.
Taking a look at this, what people thought of communism was not this. It was supposed to be a great society where everyone was equal but here we have an improvised population and censored news and information. However, taking a look at hindsight, this was to be expected. The two major communism trials didn't really work out as seen in Russia and China. Over all, it was a great read. Exploring what Drakulic had to say didn't add any new information but extended what we already thought about communism. We knew the basic information but these articles provided a greater insight into what was going on.
(Sorry for being late. I was studying hard for my AP Calc exam for Wednesday. However, mention this to you at the end of class on Tuesday which my my memory was ok.)
The two excerpts from Slavenka Drakulic’s novel “How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed” provide the reader with a deep understanding of life in communist Yugoslavia, and other communist states. The first chapter, “A Chat with my Censor”, discusses the mass censorship that occurred in Communist magazines, newspapers, and other forms of the press. The author’s conversation with the state security police (SDB) officer shows her, and the reader, the significance of censorship. The fear instilled in citizens allows censorship to be internalized within them, referred to as autocensorship by the author. After the discussion, the author begins to examine herself and her writing more closely, search for her errors, and look at her life through the inspector’s eyes. This chapter shows how, every day, citizens of communist countries were constantly analyzing themselves, being absolutely certain not to offend the party. They were well aware of the consequences that awaited them if they were to contradict the communist regime.
The second chapter, entitled “How We Survived Communism”, provides a distinct picture of daily life in communist Yugoslavia. There were constant shortages of nearly everything, so things were being collected and recycled. The objects being collected – pants, jars, plastic bags, etc. – show how the author survived communism, and how communism ultimately failed. Collecting these items was necessary for survival, and because of this, people had distrust in the government and feared for the future. They were suffering from a unique type of poverty, one in which the entire country is poor, and the situation never changes. No one in this system believed that the government could provide for them, or that anything that the government did could change the circumstances.
There are many important aspects of the author’s life in communism, some of which have already been mentioned. The author states that through government censorship, she began to censor herself, which I believe to be an interesting and critical point. She also states that “deep down nobody believed in a system that was continuously unable to provide for its citizens’ basic needs.” This point is very significant because it shows the lack of faith that citizens had in their government, even thought they were never able to publicize these feelings. A final point made by the author is the inescapability of poverty in a communist country. She mentions how poverty is simply a fact of life, and that it rarely changes.
Overall, I am not very surprised by the author’s description of life in communism. Since reading “Animal Farm”, I have always believed that communism is bad in practice. Shortages, censorship, and fear have always been associated with life in a communist country. The excerpts do, however, paint a more vivid and realistic picture of what life was like, especially with their description of the magnitude of recycled materials.
These chapters reveal ordinary life under a communist regime by giving examples of how people got by on a day to day basis. The first chapter shows everything was being censored by the government. People did not even have the freedom to think their own thoughts. If they did, an inspector/censor would immediately come after them. The second chapter shows the effort that had to be put into living a normal life. People had to save every household item from plastic bags to old pantyhose. This was because they lived in fear that any day money would run out and these regular items would disappear.
I thought it was interesting in the first chapter when Drakulic mentioned that comrade inspectors like M supervise how well the print press, TV, and radio follow the line laid down by the party. This seems so weird today because things like TV, radio, and newspapers are all forms of media that report the news on all beliefs. There are so many different parties and forms of government that are all included in the news. They inform us of everything going on in the world, not just our party. Another interesting thing in that chapter was when autocensorship was brought up as a subtler, deeper variation of censorship. Autocensorship is what terrorized Drakulic from the time between the call from her censor to the actual meeting. It was her trying to figure out everything that she could have done wrong that the censor would bring up. In the end it was clear that she never actually did anything wrong, the censor was just doing his job. Finally what is most shocking about communism is the fact that it makes everybody in society become exactly the same. There is no room for individuality because everybody has to fit the perfect communist standard. People have to live life in fear of censors, so they are forced to all become the same.
Pantyhose, shoeboxes, cans, and old pants all relate to the final chapter, "How We Survived Communism". This is because these household products are exactly how people survived. They were forced to collect and recycle anything that could be useful. There were different categories of objects including general objects like old cloth, objects that normal people in normal countries would throw away like bottles, foreign objects like chewing gum, and objects that might disappear like coffee. This was how they survived communism because they were never sure what would be in the store the next day. Cupboards started to look like museums of communist shortages.
This picture of communism is what I expected. When I think of communism I think of a scary time period with little freedom and this fits right into the description the author gives. People did not trust their government and they lived in fear of the future. Nobody believed in the system because in forty years it never provided for their basic needs.
Reading these two chapters can give a lot of insight to whom ever reads them. The chapters give a first hand account of what hardships people had to go to through during the age of Communism. People could not freely express what they truly felt towards other people without being censored and citizens living during this period had to make due with what they had.
In “A Chat With My Censor” the journalist had a call from Comrade Inspector M. Since the first words that were spoken between them, the journalist lived the time between the phone call and the actual meeting in fear. She didn’t know if she might have said or wrote something to outspoken in the Communist guidelines. This example could be used as a much broader way of telling how people were silenced about their personal comments. If one were to speak of something offensive against Communism, who knows what would happen to that person. This chapter also gives us insight in how people were monitored. For example when the journalist came back from the meeting and talked to her boss about the suspicious meeting she just had with a censurer, she realized that they had been taping her all along with a microphone and wanted to see what she was doing in between the phone call and the meeting.
In “How We Survived Communism” Vesna and her mother really get the point across of how difficult life was living under Communism rule. In this chapter Vesna’s mother talks about how they needed to make everything have multiple uses. I think one quote basically sums up the entire chapter. “You recycle, recycle, and recycle, redefining an object by turning it into something else, giving it one function after another, and you throw it away only when you have made absolutely sure that it can’t be used anymore”(181). Examples of how everyday objects would be thought of as having multiple uses would be cotton underwear being used as a dust cloth, being used to wash floors tiles etc. An old pair of pants could be used as the bottom of a mop. Because during this time period, many things were in shortage such as mops, and so people had to use common household items and turn them into things you would never consider them being.
Three things that I think the author said that were important was that people had to watch what they say in newspapers otherwise they would be censored, household items had to have multiple uses, and that times were overall tuff for people living during this time period.
The objects such as shoe boxes and old cans relate to the final title very well. These ordinary objects meant much more than what they were. For example, the shoe box was much more than a shoe box during this time. It was used to hold family photos and a quote in this chapter goes something to the effect of when a person took out the shoe box you could tell it was more than a shoe box because of how carefully they took it off the shelf and how they handled it with care. These people survived Communism by making average objects turn into special things that only meant something to each individual person. Before reading this article I have always thought of Communism making people one big happy family. Maybe I thought of it that way because that’s how communist countries portray themselves, but after reading these chapters I realize that my picture of Communism couldn’t be further than the truth.
After reading the two chapters from “How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed,” I had a more insightful understanding of the communist regime. The title of the book fits perfectly, because Slavenka Drakulic really showed how little items, such as pantyhose, shoeboxes, and old pants were essential to surviving. By today’s standards, and in our democratic society, these items are just thrown away when their time is up, but for people living in a communist society, these items were used until they could not possibly be used anymore. Drakulic recalls how she would visit a lady once a month with a bag full of pantyhose that needed to be repaired. Personally, I know after I get one run in a pair of pantyhose, I throw them away immediately. In America’s society though, that’s alright, because pantyhose are an inexpensive commodity whereas at that time, “stockings were rare and expensive items.., and only after many repairs would one throw them away (180).” Everything was recycled, and recycled, and recycled. In this “ecological unit,” nothing was ever wasted. In the title, the part about laughing while surviving communism can be related to the memory of the old pants. Drakulic remembers, “I washed the floor in my house with an old pair of man’s pants, never realizing how odd a broom dressed in pants looks, until my friend, a foreigner of course, pointed it out to me, laughingly (182).” While this does sound silly and ridiculous, it also shows how depressing a communist lifestyle was. To live in a society that cannot even offer necessities is disheartening.
I always knew that the whole purpose of communism was to divvy everything up, so that everyone was equal. However, I never realized that everyone, except for corrupt government officials, was living in poverty. Ideally, this whole form of government sounds advantageous when trying to rebuild an economy and things will be fair for everyone. While the communist made sure they equally distributed goods amongst its people, they failed to allow for competition within markets. The fact that they forbid foreign markets from entering is detrimental to any society, because it does not allow national economies or your people to prosper. Perhaps certain foreign goods were better and more advanced than national goods. Unfortunately though, the communist people are being hindered from living in an advanced society.
I believe it was imperative that Slavenka Drakulic discussed the censorship under the communist regime. The government would censor the newspapers to make sure that everything portrayed communism in a positive light and so that their people were never influenced by the west. By doing so, the government put fear into its people, and that is how they ruled. Few would consider rebelling against the government, because they feared what would happen to them.
The third thing I thought was essential in mentioning was how people adapted. Sure, we see how they adapted to living a life of poverty by recycling common items, but they adapted in other ways. People had to behave differently in order to “beat the system.”
After reading this article I had a new view of communism. In my opinion, it is more evil than I originally thought it was. While Slavenka Drakulic was brutally honest, I preferred reading something written from that perspective, because it truly gives one a better understanding. Plus, she was pretty much an average person, so her viewpoint is more accepting.
Molly G
After reading the two chapters, I realized how horrible and negative the communism government was. It made me question how a country and its people would ever think of keeping a government like this around. The government was censoring everything and people had no rights.
They also lacked what we Americans may consider necessities such as modern innovations and technology. The lifestyle people lived was in fear. The citizens were forced into poverty and there were no opportunities for someone to make a better life for them self. I also thought it was interesting how Drakulic mentioned that comrade inspectors like M supervise would come and inspect people to sure that what is printed in newspapers or on TV is what the communist party wants. This is so different form our society because of freedom of speech. People in America can print almost anything or say their opinion on TV. Communism not only limits what people can do but also it makes all its citizens act accordingly and the same to their rules. People cannot be individuals or come up with amazing ideas because they are not aloud to. Communism was hurting their society because brilliant people were not able to speak out and express their ideas of advancement.
Pantyhose, shoeboxes, cans, and old pants all relate to the final chapter, "How We Survived Communism.” These all relate because they were household products that people used to survive. People were forced to collect and recycle anything that could be useful because of fear that they would lose everything if they didn’t save it.
Communism is what I expected it to be. When communism comes to mind I think of a sad time period when people had little freedom and the government controlled lives. The author gives a perfect description of what I envisioned, and explains how people didn’t trust their government and how they lived in fear.
Jilian McGreen
AP Euroblog
How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed
The excerpt from Slavenka Dakulic’s novel, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed, succeeded in one crucial way. It made the details of a text book, or of an early morning lecture, tangible and interesting.
It is not difficult to picture a young girl using a brrom and old pants as a mop- and not knowing any other kind. It is not difficult to picture a boss whose gestures do not correspond with his speech because his office has been bugged. Perhaps most importantly, it is difficult not to feel the overwhelming sense of anxiety and suffocation that accompanies the citizens of any communist regime.
I had never imagined that communism was in any way enjoyable or easy. The problem was, I think, that I had never imagined it at all. Details like these, true details about a family trying to survive in a communist society, force readers to imagine, to sympathize, and to try to understand.
After the AP, Suzie Jing is fried. But here goes:
Slavenka Drakulic really is like an Eastern Simone de Beauvoir, an existentialist and a feminist mixed whose ability to relate her story of Communism as a citizen and as a woman is truly remarkable.
In terms of what is revealed, the inherent quirky pessimism of Communism seems to be highlighted in her work. The Communist regime is revealed in a negative light. The media surveillance inspector in ‘A Chat With My Censor’ is rather like an oppressive spy who not only dug into her work and privacy but also into her psyche. Information was censored rigorously, and anything made public ought to have been filtered first. One thing the author stated that I noted was that “tender” treatment bred self-censorship, and that she “began to examine [herself], to search for [her] errors, to look at [her] life through his eyes”. This sort of psychological ‘warfare’ rings eerily true especially in light of the loss of individuality and personal identity that is also embodied in Communism. People were viewed en mass. Differences in class, in wealth, even gender… they were all discouraged to an extent. It was a trial to “survive in a system that was designed to destroy the individual”. Ms. Drakulic reveals the larger helplessness that united the women and men (the second thing I thought interesting). Both genders’ have their identities denied. The uniquely woman aspect that Drakulic sought and watched other women seek was quashed by the Communist idealism, and in turn, this united both sexes in the same way that social class and occupation and other categories were united. The third interesting thing to note is more closely related to women. Drakulic talked of the “beauty myth” in that, for women in the communist regimes, good makeup was not merely a way to beautify—the element of style was a way to affirm individuality in a society where ‘uniform’ was uniform.
Furthermore, in the discussion of what was Communist life, it seemed that recycling and a sort of vulture hunting was common and everyday for men and women. Actually, I can greatly relate to this picture, and this was what I expected, mostly, having been born and raised in China by my grandparents before moving abroad. Some rural areas I visited, as well as urban ‘slummy’ areas occupied by acquaintances, certainly did have the feel of reuse, with the occupants making use of everything available. The pantyhose, shoe boxes, etc, etc… it was a common thing to see the same sort of old used elements of society lying about or being used, hoarded, recycled… over and over again. One man’s junk is another’s treasure has never rang quite as true, nor quite as distorted. Often, government and citizen were alienated in a painfully ironic situation where, at the same time, the citizen felt the effects of government everyday—but was government feeling the poverty of the citizen? This set up leads to doubting the effectiveness of the whole system of Communism. Ideally, a level playing field as well as equality is a wonderful thing: however, the resulting blandness is an oppressing factor. Rather than the freedom one would think results from finally being equal to your neighbor and the man on TV who has all the riches, this equality resulted in the loss of ‘self’.
In relation to the title of the collection, ‘How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed’, the last articles mention of pantyhose and other various diverse physical nouns does made me, as a reader, want to the chuckle a little at the absurd picture painted by someone recycling pantyhose and darning old pants—that is, chuckle and at the same time half-sob with sympathy. Of course, the emotional aspect of the piece also related to the title’s interesting ‘emotion’. ‘Survived’, also, is a very good verb. The constant saving and scrimping is indeed the very picture of survival of one family, of countless families under communism, always riding on edge, looking for tomorrow to see if it might be a little different from the monotony of today.
The two chapters from the book, “How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed,” by Slavenka Drakulic, proved to be very eye-opening the reader in learning about the way of life for Germans under communist rule. These two chapters allowed me to see the deprivation that the people suffered from during the time. I had never considered that these people were so limited in activities of everyday life that we take for granted. Especially in the case of Slaveka Drakulic, whose occupation forced her to be watched quite closely at all times. The government placed her under strict surveillance and she expressed her nervousness of meeting with the inspector. Her fear in the government shows how people lived in constant terror, and always had to be on their guard.
In addition, the second chapter talked about how communities used household items to help them with their chores. Every item was used as much as it could possibly be of use. This is no way to live. I had never thought that these people had to suffer through so much to complete daily routine.
The second chapter was "How We Survived Communism" Showed us how people used their daily items, and how they kept everything possible to be used repeatedly. The future to them was unknown. Therefore, they made sure that every object imaginable had been used to its fullest. Just one more thing people had to fear in this society, what will happen to them in the future and what does the future hold. People had no idea if the products they use every day were going to be there tomorrow. So, that was the significance of saving up these everyday items. The title of the chapter is relevant to panty hose, shoeboxes, cans and old pants because these were some of the items that the people used for survival. These people would use the items over and over again until it was worn out and would be of no further use… it kind of reminded me of how the Native Americans used to use every part of the animal after they killed it, because nothing ever went to waste. I find it amazing that these people could be so resourceful in a time of such suffering.
The excerpts, "A Chat With My Censor," and "How We Survived" reveal many things about life in a country run by a communist government. It is very obvious that fear was a factor for citizens of those countries. People had to be careful what they said and who they said it to. In "A Chat With My Censor" the author reveals to the audience of how bias and controlled the media is. Any journalist suspected of having even the slightest disdain for the regime was inspected. This shows us how far the government was willing to go in order to keep everyone in line. The second article it is revealed that most of the citizens lived in a new breed of poverty. One in which everyone was poor. This ironically fulfills the Communist ideology of equality but in the ways the people wanted.
One of the three profound things that the author said was “If the politicians had only had a chance to peek into our closets, cellars, cupboards, and drawers, looking not for forbidden books or anti-state material- they would have seen the future that was in store for their wonderful plans for communism itself. But they didn’t look (189)." This reveals almost instantly that the people and the government wanted and believed things on the opposite ends of the spectrum. The government is treated like a parent who the best for its children but does not know what that is. The people are rebellious children in the way that they hide contraband materials. The second important thing Drakulic said was when she mentioned her Grandmother's drawers. What people hid from the government was symbolic of how there was such distrust for the political system and without the rust of its people, the government was doomed to fail. Lastly, the author states that in a Communist country such as hers people could not make better life for themselves, that they could only hope the regime was replaced. This struck me as powerful because it contrasts with the country we live in today.
The items of pantyhose, shoe-boxes, old pants and cans are important to the story because those items are how they survived communism. Those items had multiple uses and in a Communist country one had to save as much money as possible so they were very helpful indeed.
This is in fact the picture of Communism that I had expected because when you set up a society in which you oppress the masses and relegate competition, that society is doomed to fail and its citizens will stand up for themselves.
(I submitted this Wednesday night, I don't know why they don't show up though.)
Revealed throughout these two passages was the fact that life under a communist regime was anything but ordinary. Conforming to the ever changing ideals of the party was the best way to survive, and even that wasn’t safe due to the fact that the government could condemn a person with faulty evidence. People lived their day to day lives in a constant fear of shortages, therefore saving everything and anything that they could. The mistrust fear that the people held for the government permanently handicapped any hope that the system might turn a profit.
Life under a communist regime was a life of fear, fear of shortages, fear of speaking out, fear of being spoken out against, fear of life. People were scared that the government could not provide for them because they did not comprehend the extent to which the common folk were suffering. Saving like pack rats was considered common and nothing was thrown out that could be reused. People could not afford new clothes and wore deranged assortment of clothing around the house. Phones were tapped and offices were monitored, no one was free from suspicion of treason. One could not perform their job without being questioned at some point and a special government division was created to insure that civilians were kept “in line.” The harsh conditions that people were forced to live under was hardly conducive to a happy and prosperous life.
After reading the two chapters I believe that the most important things that were said was when the author commented on how people who saved during the communist regime continued to do so. I believe that this shows that although communism was clearly not a perfect situation, it did teach those involved to conserve which helps the earth. Another important thing was when the author said that the government should have looked at the items within their cupboards instead of looking for forbidden items. This shows that the author believes that the government could have helped further if they had only looked at the forest instead of the trees. Another important comment that the author had was after the meeting with her censor how she started to examine her own faults. I believe that the author was attempting to portray a situation in life where the government controlled those around them through fear, and although not always through direct intimidation or threats, the fear was implied.
Surviving communism was no easy feat. People were not living in the lap of luxury and by giving the reader and example of this, through the shoebox, cans, pantyhose, and old pants the author truly paints a picture of what had to be done to survive. Nothing could be wasted, for no one knew when it would be available again, and if something couldn’t be salvaged, it was put to use as something else. This image that was created of starving and desperate people was similar to what I expected form a communist state, only more extreme. Communism is based upon dividing goods based on peoples needs and it is clear after reading that people received far less than what they needed.
There are two aspects of ordinary life under Communism that are described in the two chapters of Drakulic’s book that we read. The first is the relationship with government censorship that she faced constantly in her profession as a writer. The second is the remarkable conservation of consumer goods to be used over and over again and for alternate uses that stems from the uncertainty of product availability. These accounts lend a personal twist to my understanding of Soviet Communism and the daily life of it’s citizens. Before this, I had never come across an account of what it was like to live under Communism.
“A Chat with my Censor” portrayed the feeling of having authority constantly checking over your work from a distance. Darkulic describes her one and only meeting with the censor himself to show that it was insignificant. The man himself was not stereotypically imposing and the discussion they had did not have any importance. The nature of his work as a censor and the restriction of free expression that he represents is the significant part. The first important point that Drakulic reveals is the “autocensorship” that was ingrained into each of the writers in order to keep meetings with the censors few and insignificant. She brings up a second interesting point when describing how the censor would view her life and that if “they” wanted to bring her down they could easily distort the facts of her life to that end.
The final chapter describes in intricate detail how all kinds of goods were “collected” and “recycled” by families living under Communism. The collecting and reusing was practically necessary as a result of the perpetual state of poverty that these families lived in. There is a certain persevering ingenuity that is revealed from their usage of shoeboxes to keep photo albums or organize extensive bills or the old jars or cans turned to flower pots. These “ecological” communist households operated through heavy dependence on each other. Another typical aspect of the households was the apparent stockpiling of certain goods. The constant repair of pantyhose and the collection of flour, sugar, and all of the other goods is relevant because this indicates the possible shortage of consumer goods that we take for granted. The final, most poignant, point of importance that Drakulic makes is that while the Communist leaders were promising bright futures, the people could not be sure of always having access to necessities. This general uncertainty and distrust among the people undermined Communism and predicted its doom.
I could have imagined the hard-knock life under Soviet Communism to be something like this but it was surprising to learn of their extensive collecting and recycling. I see now that logically if the goods that you require to live are not always guaranteed to you, you have to take it upon yourself to conserve and prepare for the worst.
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