He receives double portions at meals and has the power to fix his squad's work report in order to ensure his squad the right amount of food they deserve solidarity. Here In the "family" of members within squad 104, Tiurin seems to be the all-knowing father, and although not much older than the rest of the members of the squad, his somewhat lofty position reinforces that. Tiurin has the squad's best interests at heart when at work and this is evident when he scares Der to keep quiet about steeling the roofing. The fact that Tiurin works with the squad when he is needed shows his humble and self-effacing manner. In addition, Shukhov even manages to add to the creation of the camps" social hierarchy. Shukhov does so when he has extra portions of food during one of his meals, and feels remorse for Captain Buinovsky therefore he gives one of the portions of food to the captain. This can be perceived as Shukhov adding on to the camps" hierarchy by perceiving himself as better off than Captain Buinovsky. Solzhenitsyn uses the social hierarchy within the gulag to convey the theme of the endurance of humanity. Though the prison camp system seeks to destroy, by its very nature, expression of camaraderie and actions based on morals and ethics, Shukhov and his fellow prisoners maintain their humanity through small acts and rituals, for example when Shukhov "could never bring himself to eat with his hat on"(Solzhenitsyn 14). .
The use of irony is also used in the novel to depict the harshness and cruelty of Russian prison life. When Solzhenitsyn writes of how the prisoners are forced to go out in the blistering cold to be counted numerous times displays the callous life in the gulag. " What made this recounting so infuriating was that time wasted on it was the zeks own, not the authorities" (Solzhenitsyn 92). The camp guards would unnecessarily pester the prisoners by administering to go through various pointless tasks.