Amaya Dhawan Madden / Garcia Honors 9th Lit 2 August 2024 Prompt 2: Kretzsky’s Morality. In the novel Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, Nikolai Kretzsky must make a difficult decision to help Lina, which causes his moral beliefs to positively change and his sympathy for Lina to grow. Kretzsky sees Lina and Jonas about to steal wood and decides not to punish them and instead helps them. He confronts them and says, “‘What are you doing?’ he demanded. ‘Looking for driftwood to burn,’ said Jonas. ‘Have you seen any?’ Kretzsky hesitated. He reached into the bag and threw a piece of wood at our shins, walking away before we could say anything.” (Sep. 285). Initially, Kretzsky’s role was to make the prisoners work and punish them if they do not. Despite this, he chooses to fight his internal conflict and help Lina and Jonas. Lina does not know much about Kretzsky, but she can clearly see that he is struggling to betray the …show more content…
When he gives her the wood, he not only changes his morality, but also develops as a character: “Some of my mother’s relatives are in Kolyma. I was supposed to go there, to help them, Thats why I wanted to leave the barge in Jakutsk. But now I'm here, too. So, you're not the only one who is in prison” (Sep. 216). Kretzsky reveals that his mother had died, and he wanted to help his relatives. When he was unable to leave Jakutsk, he began to understand Lina’s pain and suffering. Since his mother died and he does not have a good father figure, he realizes that he and Lina are similar in this way. They are both struggling to help their family and stay true to their morals. At the beginning of the story, he would have punished Lina for stealing wood, but now that he relates to her, he changes his actions for the better. Kretzksy has shown great development as a character by understanding Lina’s conflict and changing his morals to help