As the novel progresses weather and the cold become more and more prominent as major themes. The harsh climate of Siberia with its extreme temperatures, not to mention the limited rations the prisoners would consume all contributed to a more than exhausting experience for the individuals going through it. Ill equipped to be working in these conditions, having holes in their boots turning their feet to ice blocks and coats so thin that they did little to shield against the wind. Despite the conditions, prisoners pray for it to get colder, “Shukov looked out of the corner of an eye at the milk-white tube if it had shown -41 they ought to not be sent out