Ivan: Part II
I can't imagine what it must be like to be marched around every day all day like cattle.  Obeying every word or else feel the consequences.  I have a newfound appreciation for my own personal clothing...coats and boots.  I can say I know what it's like to be cold without hope of warming up, well, no hope for maybe a day, but not for days like Ivan.  I found myself grateful that I live in a country with freedom of speech and life.  When reading the part about him laying bricks and being cold doing it, it brought me back to my child hood days when I would be forced to to stay outside during bitter cold and work...my hands would be so numb I thought they would never warm up again. 
something that surprised me a bit was how he held onto that spoon.  I often think of how prisoners might make and maintain a knife or two(which he did have), but that spoon was his lifeline.  He was very good at hiding things, it was obvious his years in prison brougt a skill for this. 
Ivan had quite an outlook on life...but was very interesting was the ending.  It was great that even amid this awful place, Ivan could see the good things.  I wonder if he would have realized this w/o Alyosha's discussion?  This was a great insight for not only Ivan, but me, too!  Something I realized a long time ago that this reminded me is:  Life is full of dissapointments, it how you handle them that defines who you are.