Between Shades Of Grey Essay

“I looked back to the hole. What if we were digging our own grave?” (128). Lina, the main character of the book, says when forced to dig a hole with three other women. This is just one example of what Lina, her family, and millions of others have to endure while at labor camps. Ruta Sepetys novel, “Between Shades of Gray” shares the story of one family who was arrested and brought to a labor camp. Lina and Jonas were arrested, along with their mother by the Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del (NKVD). They were separated from their father, taken to the Altai Labor Camp, and forced to work for little food and water. Throughout the story, Ruta Sepetys shows just how much a person can change and learn in one year. In the novel, Lina starts out as a naive girl but becomes a resourceful and intelligent young lady.

Throughout life, we lose a countless number of possessions and many are taken away from us. Loss is an inevitable part of life, we lose friends, family, cell phones, papers, and even tiny items such as paper clips. Though, most people do not actually appreciate what they have until it is taken away from them. In Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, Lina loses her lifestyle, family, and freedoms when she and her family are taken as war prisoners during World War II.

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

Sofia Petrovna follows the life of Sofia Petrovna, a typist who works at the Leningrad publishing house. After the death of her husband and capture of her son, Sofia goes insane. It’s a type of unhinged that demonstrates itself in mirages minutely dissimilar from the deceits those surrounding her voice to guard themselves. Sofia Petrovna proposes an extraordinary and fundamental account of Stalin's Great Purges through simple fictional story arcs. First, there is the vanishing of seemingly innocent people. Sofia looses several people in her life throughout the duration of the novel with almost no warning or explanation. This provides an effective look into

One of my favorite parts of the book was the setting. When I found out this book would be about the World Wars, I thought it would be about Holocaust since it is a very popular period used as the settings in many books. I was surprised to see that it was about Russia during the World Wars. I had never heard of Stalin until I read this book, and this book has led me to research more about Russia. I didn’t realize Russia’s involvement in the World Wars until I read this book!

Andrius and Lina grow closer together through the hard times at the camp. Their love seems to have to end as Lina’s family moves on to another work camp. Andrius has taught Jonas how to be strong, and Jonas takes this task on. While going to a new environment scares Lina. Andrius is the braves out of them all and knows that they must be strong to survive.

Throughout life one faces with challenges that change a course of personality. One struggles with the decision of the problems and have a battle within themselves. One cannot judge a person off of first impression because that person has many sides. In Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, Kretsky, an NKVD guard, struggles with himself over his feeling towards the prisoners of the camp. Kretsky feels a guilt within himself that overcomes his need for masculinity in front of the guards, so over the course of the book he changes. Lina instantly decides that Kretsky is as cruel like the rest of the guards and hates him. Sepetys debates that Kretsky’s war within himself displays how people are more complicated than first impression.

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.

In conclusion, the conditions that many suffered when in the Gulags were unimaginable. Many say it was easier to commit suicide rather than to suffer and live each and every day in these intense labor camps. Many were starved to extreme measures and even the most hard working people were feed little to nothing at all. Sleeping conditions were nowhere near to comfortable. Over a million perished between 1923-1953 and very few made it out and even if they did the Gulags were set in remote areas so they would not make it too far from the camp and would eventually die. Unlike concentration camps, you were eventually released from the Gulags, but once you were released you were either half dead or suffered severe psychological trauma. Many were

One common theme in both novels is there was always difficulties to overcome. There are different difficulties depending on the situation a person was in but every Soviet citizen had to overcome difficulties. In Sofia Petrovna there was the challenge of overcoming life with her son being in the Gulag camp system and not having a job. Sofia overcomes this by becoming an optimist. She never loses hope that her son Kolya will be released early she tells people her son was released early. By having a positive outlook on life she forgets the troubling situation she is in and continues to live her life. In Gulag Voices there were many challenges living inside the Gulag camp system. There were many challenges in the camp system most were physical

The purpose of this analysis is to show how the themes of the novel are loosely based on the events in the soviet union, and the similarities between the world of big brother and Joseph Stalin’s communistic leadership.

The Gulags of the Soviet Union have been compared to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, but in reality they were worse. The Gulags were isolated prison camps peppered across Siberia. Death, torture, and disease raged within their walls, while endless work went on outside. Gulag personnel were cruel and unfeeling, using terrible punishment methods and playing senseless games that cost prisoners their lives. Political enemies of the Bolshevik party made up a significant portion of the prisoner population, with most sent to the infamous camp system Kolyma. Liberation was painfully slow, but by 1960, all of the Gulags were gone.

The novel did have its boring parts but I powered through them and was rewarded with some strong emotions at points. It really made me feel for the characters and for the people who had and have to live under communism. I do accept Pasternak’s point completely and he did a great job of making the reader feel what he felt and presenting the material so that I would agree with him. The emotions he captures and presents are intense and amazing. Pasternak projects the values of family and friends throughout the novel. He shows us how important they are and how much life would change without them. I agree with this completely. I believe that family and friends are two extremely important values and really make life so much more wonderful and enjoyable. Many of the dark times in the novel come when family and friends are scarce for the characters like at the beginning of the novel when Yuri’s mother is being buried and when Yuri is on the battlefield away from his wife and other friends. Overall this book is a difficult read that is definitely not for those who are troubled with long novels and sometimes boring sections but the rewards of reading this are one hundred percent worth the trouble of reading it. I would definitely read this again and suggest that others also read this novel. This is a true classic and an amazing novel that does a great job of telling the history

Gulags were labor camps that were used during the Stalin era, people were sent there for all types of reasons but mostly petty crimes and opinions. Gulag is an acronym for something else stated here, “ The term ‘Gulag’ is an acronym for the

The novel, Darkness at Noon, clearly references Stalin’s purges and the show trials that occurred during the late 1930s. Although not explicitly mentioned, it is clear that this is what the novel is truly about. By reading the book, one can gain a further understanding of the time period. The novel, Darkness at Noon, can contribute to a further understanding of the 30s in the Soviet Union through its themes of old vs. new and the use of historical fiction.