One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich: Summary In the book One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, the main character Ivan and the other prisoners in the camp are treated very badly. Ivan tries to make himself warm and to get enough food to keep himself alive. He does only what is necessary to please the guards and the commanders of the camp. Ivan uses his intelligence to make his life easier so he can save up more energy to face the work load. He and the members of the 104th group manage to survive because of Ivan's personal attention to himself and his care about the others. More importantly, Ivan survives because his intelligence, his spirit, his dece