Between Shades Of Gray

I think the best parts of the book are where you see Liesel grow and understand the difficult times that she lives in with her limited knowledge of life. Something I really enjoyed this book was the characterization and background of the characters. One of the best parts of the book is when we see the first time Liesel ever steal a book, after her young brother Werner died on the train ride to their new foster parents’ home. She was with her mother who could not support her two children after Liesel’s father was accused of being a ‘communist’. They stop at a graveyard where a young gravedigger buries Werner as his family sobs over him. After this, the narrator describes Liesel seeing the dropped book “The Grave Diggers Manual”, and tucking it into her clothing (Zusak 54). This is a turning point where we can see Liesel’s personality developing as she seeks comfort in her life from sorrow, “The book thief had struck for the first time – the beginning of an illustrious career.” (Zusak 19). The worst part of the book was arguably the very end. Although a terrible end to the story is foreshadowed continually throughout the book, it still comes as a shock when you find out the fate of the characters. We find that after all of the characters had

Personally, this was the hardest section of the book to get through. The majority of content from this section described events that were leading up to Stalingrad. There were stories on how the higher ups of the German and Soviet governments responded to

The novel was set in New York during the Second World War. Since the main characters are Jews, this period of time is very significant. Not only were the Jews persecuted during WWII, but New York was also close to a military base, which made it a prime target for bombing. Even the setting has an underlying sense of tension.

Given that this book is written similarly to how a story would be written, it is easy to become absorbed into its pages. I really appreciated that it was, for the most part, structured on a timeline. Russell does an outstanding job of conveying the hardships, dreams, and emotions of those she writes about. Following the lives of different families from the beginning of their misfortune until the very end of the war (for many, the end of their lives), it is incredibly effective in stirring up emotion in all but the most heartless of

First to understand more about the novel and its author, Erich Maria Remarque, it would be helpful to learn about his life. Erich was born on June 22, 1898 (internet source 4) in the town of Osnabruck Germany. He was born into a poor family to his father, Peter Maria Kramer, and mother, Anna Marie Kramer (internet source 5). His father was a bookbinder while Erich was a kid (internet source 5). He also had 2 other siblings and his family as a whole moved at least 11 during his childhood. To say Erich had a turbulent childhood would be an understatement; he grew up in circumstances most people could not even begin

This book was certainly one of the more difficult books I have ever read in any scenario ever. To expand upon, it was mostly due to the fact that I, at the time, was completely unfamiliar with the subject of politics. Thus leading into my first point, I did enjoy this book because I was able to learn new aspects of our world. Even more so, I was able to apply them to the real world in this upcoming presidential election. Of course with the good comes the bad, I was simply overwhelmed with information that the book did come off as confusing at many parts. Not to mention the excessive amounts of examples in history that each theme has occurred, did anger me a little bit.

The book to me was interesting. The author use make history sounds more exciting than the

Lina’s romance is subtle and delicate from the start of the book to the end. It is even more unexpected for

The author effectively makes war more realistic and understandable for those of us who have never fought. One of the best techniques he uses is creating personable characters, who are interesting and relatable. These stories show the actual effects of the war on the soldiers and that they’re real people. The book does not contain all fighting, shows actuality, and is heroless, as compared to other war stories. The author creates attachment to the characters and an emotional and hilarious ride for the reader. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this

Throughout the book Lina showed excellent examples of courage. She was always chasing her dreams to accomplish to be an artist. She believed that her art can save her family. Her motivations always kept her moving. She never lost hope, that’s what motivated her to send letters to her dad to make sure that he is doing well.

In Between Shades of Gray, pages two hundred sixty-eight to three hundred thirty-eight, Lina’s group from the camp gets on a ship, hoping it is going to America. Unfortunately, they end up going to the Arctic circle and are forced to make jurtas, for themselves; finish a bakery; make a fish factory; and find and chop wood. In addition, the polar night is coming, so there is no sun and lots of snowstorms. Mother starves herself and dies for Jonas and Lina and Lina finds out why her family was deported. Also, Kostas may have died, but there is hope that he did not. In this section, the thing that made me dismal was when Mother died.

The events that this reminds me of is the holocaust. It reminds of the holocaust, because the people were put through the same situation. In the novel, Lina's and her family were sent to labor camps to do work. In the holocaust they also had to do that, they had to do manual labor. In addition, another reason why this novel reminds of the holocaust is because that people died. In the book, the people were sent to the North Pole, because a camp was there. They had to go through atrocious winters which ended up killing an abundant of people. They died because lack of food and temperature. Furthermore, if they even upset or anger the Soviet Soldiers the Soviets would shot them. This resembles the holocaust, because during the holocaust many

It was very farfetched and unrealistic as well at cheesy at times. What is the possibility that of all the Holocaust survivors on planet Earth that a Nazi officer and someone who attended the camp he worked at both live in the same New Hampshire town. I also wonder, why Sage? He’s 95. Odds are he didn’t expect to live to be so old. You’d think that he would’ve found another Jewish person to kill him a bit earlier on in his life if he felt so guilty about his past. I also really didn’t like Sage, at least in the beginning. I feel like she’s too stroppy and feels too sorry for herself. I like how later in the book she develops to be a bit more confident. Another thing I didn’t like was how the author had to throw in a love triangle type deal. Her relationship with the funeral director wasn’t that annoying but the romance with Leo was. It would’ve been a lot better if there was just a strong female protagonist without a romantic interest. Besides all this I think Jodi Picoult has a beautiful style of writing and when we were learning about Minka’s past and her experiences in the ghettos of Poland and at Auschwitz I felt very touched and saddened. Did I hate it? No. Did I love it?

The exposition of Between Shades of Gray is in the very beginning. Lina and her family are in their home in the evening of June 14, 1941 when someone starts pounding on their front door. Lina’s mother, Elena, opens the door and the NKVD tells her that she has 20 minutes before they were to be taken away. Elena makes Lina and Jonas start packing, who are still both confused as to what’s going on. Elena then starts breaking all of their glass and china, and when asked by Jonas she replies “because I love them so much.”

Lina meets many exciting people who were also ripped from their homes during the NKVD invasion, one of whom she ends up marrying. The NKVD are on the hunt throughout the camp to get people to sign papers condemning themselves to 25 years as a prisoner, but with a few more advantages then the