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Summary Of Between Shades Of Gray By Ruta Septys

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“Between Shades of Gray” by Ruta Septys is a novel during WW2 about a Lithuanian girl named Lina that has been deported to a Siberian labor camp and must survive the hardships there. In this book, there were several powerful messages shown. The author put a huge emphasis on hope, courage, and love. In the end, I figured out the author suggests that you should never give up hope. When the NKVD were trying to force the people to sign a contract that will bind them to the farm for 25 years, Lina thinks, “It was at gunpoint that I fell into every hope and allowed myself to wish from the deepest part of my heart. Komorov thought he was torturing us. But we were escaping into a stillness within ourselves. We found strength there.” This passage shows that she did not give in to the NKVD, despite being threatened. She could have simply relinquished and signed the contract, but instead she chose to defy the enemy and hope for survival. The theme of hope reminded me of Salt to the Sea by Ruta Septys. In this book, there were people named Joana, Emilia, Florian, and Alfred who were living in Germany during WW2. These characters had to deal with many hardships to survive, just like Lina. Despite being in a despairing situation and felt many times like they should quit, they still went on …show more content…

A variety of literary techniques were used to make it really captivating, sad and showed the message. One of them was the setting. The setting of the story was at first in a collective beet farm that was dirty, harsh, and unsanitary. It was basically a horrible setting. After, they were moved close to the North Pole! That was an even harsher landscape: “It was completely uninhabited, not a single bush or tree, just barren dirt to a shore of endless water.” I found it hard to believe that the Lina had not lost faith in those miserable places. Yet, she never gave up, never gave way to insanity, and kept trying to survive and help others do the same

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4. Literary Devices Imagery is found amongst the whole novel, it helps the readers to visualize what is happening from the characters point of view. When Lina had to draw a man from a photograph, she felt that her “skin prickled at the sight of [the commander]” when he was standing over her (Sepetys 174). This allows us to feel how Lina felt while having to draw for the NVKD.

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(Willoughby, 2004) The words of Alena Synkova approve the fact that even in the darkest and most fearful moments in life, without even her parents beside her, hope can still be achieved. It is a great challenge for someone to maintain hope in these conditions (screams of people and cries of families) and without family there to support her, it makes life difficult to maintain. But Alena Synkova, managed to do this, by repeating the lines of her poetry in her head and knowing that soon one day, there will be someone to save her from the terrible situations at the concentration camp. Furthermore, there were people

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Between Shades of Gray illustrates the severity of the Lithuanian genocide in the summer of 1941. Ruta Sepetys accurately depicts the conditions surrounding the labor camps and cattle cars. The author was present in Lithuania to speak to survivors and various other reliable sources. Between Shades of Gray starts in the summer of 1941. Through the eyes of Lina Vilkas, we see the constant brutality of the Soviets.

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Survival “True friendship is like phosphorescence- it glows best when the world around you goes dark”-Denis Martin. The Vilkas family, including 15-year-old Lena Vilkas, her 10-year-old brother Jonas and their mother Elena, have been rounded up out of their home and charged as criminals by the NKVD, the secret police for the Soviet Union, they were taken to a train station for transporting. This is where they are all put into train cars, and this is where the fight for survival begins. Now, they all have to work together to stay alive and get through this dark time. In the book Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys, Sepetys suggests, when going through tough times it helps to have good relationships to help get through it.

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