The day seems absolutely horrific for us. Getting up at 5:00am, to eat what seems like diluted dishwater and than walking to a power station, in subzero temperature throughout, to work for 10 hours, only to return back to eat more of the diluted dishwater and sleep on a uncomfortable bed.
The day, if we were to experience it, would possibly be the worst day of our lives.
However just before going to bed Shukhov is described as "pleased with life" and the day was accounted as "almost happy" The day was a good one for him.
Solzhenitsyn plays with the reader's notion of a 'bad day' as he make a good day, for the zeks, absolutely revolting.
The reader than is left to imagine what a bad day is like. The reader believes, due to this contrast, that the GULAG camps had hideous living conditions and the USSR, with approval and implementation of the GULAG system, was breaking international human right laws.
The reader is appauled with the government employees in this text, and thus sympathize with the position of the zeks
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