Between Shades of Gray
By Swetha Venigandla, Morgan LeBeau, and Emily Shrimpton
Introduction
In the novel, Between Shades of Gray, a young girl named Lina and her family are forced out of their home in Kaunas, Lithuania and eventually deported to Trofimovsk in the the North Pole. Lina's entire journey lasted 440 days, or a little over one year. In the novel Lina faced many hardships, such as; riding in a packed cattle car with hideous smells and dying people, going to a labor camp where she was almost buried alive, leaving many loved ones behind, crossing the arctic circle, vigorously working in freezing conditions, and finally losing both of her parents.
For the theme of the novel we chose 'People often have the will to survive in order to help others'. This theme encompasses our entire novel and the history behind it. During the book, Between Shades of Gray, many of the deportees were suffering but decided to push forward because they wanted to help their loved ones. For example, Lina decided to take care of her brother even after both of her parents died. It mentioned that she held Jonas immediately after her mother died. Lina could have given up but she pushed forward to save her baby brother. Another example of this is when Olga, a new mother on Lina's cattle cart, decided to keep trying to feed her baby even though it hurt her. Olga was very sick but kept struggling to save her baby, she had the will to survive; in order to save her child. There are many more examples throughout the novel. The theme of the novel really affected the plot and the way certain characters acted towards situations.
This novel took place during World War II and had many connections to the history of Stalin's terror. Stalin's occupation of the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) and the distrust Stalin had of the people in these states triggered the start to many years of deportation, labor camps, and executions. This mistreatment towards the people of the Baltic states lasted from 1941-1954. With the help of the NKVD (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs) or Stalin’s military group, he was able to take control and manipulate the people by forcing them to sign contracts and overall controlling their daily lives. As demonstrated multiple times in the book and history Stalin ruled by terror, if the people rebelled against his control he would retaliate with even greater force, causing many deaths. Overall, Stalin is responsible for the death of about 20 million people.
For the theme of the novel we chose 'People often have the will to survive in order to help others'. This theme encompasses our entire novel and the history behind it. During the book, Between Shades of Gray, many of the deportees were suffering but decided to push forward because they wanted to help their loved ones. For example, Lina decided to take care of her brother even after both of her parents died. It mentioned that she held Jonas immediately after her mother died. Lina could have given up but she pushed forward to save her baby brother. Another example of this is when Olga, a new mother on Lina's cattle cart, decided to keep trying to feed her baby even though it hurt her. Olga was very sick but kept struggling to save her baby, she had the will to survive; in order to save her child. There are many more examples throughout the novel. The theme of the novel really affected the plot and the way certain characters acted towards situations.
This novel took place during World War II and had many connections to the history of Stalin's terror. Stalin's occupation of the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) and the distrust Stalin had of the people in these states triggered the start to many years of deportation, labor camps, and executions. This mistreatment towards the people of the Baltic states lasted from 1941-1954. With the help of the NKVD (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs) or Stalin’s military group, he was able to take control and manipulate the people by forcing them to sign contracts and overall controlling their daily lives. As demonstrated multiple times in the book and history Stalin ruled by terror, if the people rebelled against his control he would retaliate with even greater force, causing many deaths. Overall, Stalin is responsible for the death of about 20 million people.