Whether it be in a novel or a nonfiction work, many authors write about and have a general theme of self sacrifice to save others. That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis is one of these novels, where it follows one of the main characters Mark and his time working for and against the totalitarian group NICE. Soviet author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn could not do what he wanted and was punished for it by the Soviet Union, therefore showing that Lewis was right in using Mark to inspire people to not give in to totalitarian groups.
Chapters eight through twelve of That Hideous Strength are centered around Mark and his conflicting views on NICE. He starts this section proud and feeling important after many of the NICE members congratulate him on a well written article about the “riots” they orchestrated. Later on, the director of NICE calls him into his office and tells Mark that NICE found Mark’s wallet near Bill Hingest’s body. Mark, who was obviously nowhere near Hingest when he was killed, believed that the director is blackmailing him and he will be turned over to the actual police if he does not work with them. After being told to bring Jane to NICE, he goes back to Edgestow but is arrested by the police for the murder of Hingest. While in jail, Mark realizes that NICE will most likely kill him soon even if he does pledge himself to them. Lewis states that “here was a man trying (for the first time in his life) to do what was obviously the right thing…” by fighting NICE, but he was still trapped in jail and could not join Jane and the others (266). Mark was willing to risk death by NICE if he could escape his imprisonment.
The beginning of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago relates to the internal struggle Mark felt during the middle chapters in Lewis’s novel. In the first few chapters, Solzhenitsyn discusses what imprisonment means to him and his life under control of the Soviet Union. During this section, he writes about a time when he ended his imprisonment and entered the city of Brodnica in Poland. He says that he did not warn the people of the totalitarian control and danger of the Soviet Union. Solzhenitsyn states that “every man always has handy a dozen glib little reasons why he is right not to sacrifice himself” (13). Solzhenitsyn means that every person that was in a situation like him, under the control of a powerful government, they are afraid to warn others and again be taken by the government and possibly killed. This relates to Mark’s predicament in That Hideous Strength. He wanted to be powerful and the inner circle of NICE, but when he realizes they would threaten him and possibly kill him, he sneaks away. He has his “little reasons,” but in the end his moral compass inspires him to join those fighting the totalitarian regime.