Essay about How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed

How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed, written by Croatian author Slavenka Drakulic, details the daily lives of people living under communist rule. She recalls a multitude of personal experiences she has had growing up under a communist regime, and the transition from communism to democracy in the late 1980s. Drakulic seems to have a general dislike for the way the communist government treats its people, and strives to relate these feelings to the reader. She opens her book with a passage about a friend of hers who killed herself by asphyxiating on gas fumes from her oven. Shortly before that she had written an article comparing the ideology of the communist state to that of a pinball machine, Her article, naà ¯ve as it seems today,†¦show more content†¦The most striking economic shortage detailed in the book is that of toilet paper. When toilet paper, a basic part of everyday life in the United States, is considered a luxury item, you know a problem exists. Drakulic s tates, Progress in communism was marked by better and better quality toilet paper. (Drakulic 72) Families were forced to use newspaper as toilet paper, revealing the resourcefulness that the people were reduced to just to survive. Finding an apartment for your family was incredibly hard, with waiting lists of up to three years for a small two-room apartment. Most people had to live with their mothers no matter what how old they were, I have trouble recalling younger people or people of my generation who dont liveÂ…with their parents, even if they are past forty. (Drakulic 86) Communism was on a downward slope, and it would not be long until democracy appeared in Eastern Europe. Although communism officially ended when the democratically elected presidents took power, there was little immediate change in policy or the peoples general attitude toward the government. A major change, which would seem like a simple thing in any free society, was the institution of a yellow line in the post office that gave the citizens a sense of privacy that they had never experienced before. The former communist government had their eyes on everyone, and the idea of a private life was laughable. Even with the newly created post officeShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Book How We Survived Communism And Even Laughed 1190 Words   |  5 PagesSlavenka Drakulic, a highly respected journalist and commentator on culture in Croatia, published the book How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed in 1991, which was a collection of essays that comprised of the stories of many women’s lives throughout Eastern Europe that lived in a communist society. Drakulic wanted to capture wome n’s stories and share them with others, because these were women who suffered from carried the biggest burden of life, living at the bottom tier of their society. AsRead MoreEssay on Cold War Book Review670 Words   |  3 Pagesfull understanding of the effects of such government. Slavenka Drakulic produced How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed, an appealing work with this fresh social approach. This nonfiction work combines the authoramp;#8217;s own recollections with the stories of other women of the Eastern Bloc. Drakulic, a renowned journalist and writer, utilizes her keen eye for detail and truth in this quest that shows how communism has devastating effects on the common citizen. She provides insight into the conditionsRead MoreWomen s Rights Of Women1149 Words   |  5 PagesOurika by Claire de Duras, How We Survived Communism Even Laughed by Slavenka Drakulic, and Things Fell Apart by Chinua Achebe, the reader can see that the characters in these stories who are women are seen as minority, people judged by society, people who do not deserve the same rights as men, and they are seen as minority compared to anyone else. 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