“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
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.
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.
(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
Food, water, and shelter are often the bare necessities to survive, but there is another factor often overlooked: hope. In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, he details the atrocities he faced while living inside the Auschwitz concentration camp accompanied by his father, and how he survived with the concept of hope. The same principle is in the article “Hope: A Paradox” by Robert Kishaba, who explains how faith in one’s life can help or desert a person. The work “A Legacy of Hope from a Family of Holocaust Survivors” by Idit Klein has the same ideology but focuses on how family allows for happiness. These works conclude that without hope, whether through family or if it is a fallacy, the chances of survival would be close to none without it,
There was a stove in the center of the hutment, and she wasn’t allowed to cook on it. During winter in this crammed space, ice, frost, and snow would blow in through the open windows, and make the poor residents suffer. These terrible conditions of overcrowding and a lack of sufficient homes created terrible conditions of suffering and personal sacrifice to the people of Oak
Jim Frederick’s book Black Hearts: One Platoon’s Descent Into Madness in Iraq’s Triangle of Death is focused on a crime and all the events that had led up to it. By the fall of 2005, 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division was approaching deployment to Iraq. The book talks about the soldiers deployed to the Triangle of Death during a very dangerous time. 101st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division was taken over by insurgents at a checkpoint just southwest of Mahmudiyah.
How people can best respond to conflicts? By: Sheccid Alvarado Vela Texts: Cujo by Stephen King; Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.
Hope is a helpful tool to push people through the hardest times in life. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, there are numerous examples of hope helping people and revitalizing their confidence. People used hope to help them through rough times. People hope that friends and family are still alive. Also hope that the Front liberates the camps and frees everyone.
Alan Gratz astonishing true story “Prisoner B-3087”, takes place in the times of the Holocaust throughout different camps. The main character, Yanek, based on Jack Gruener, is a Jew whom was split up from his family. Alone, he must survive the Nazis. One thing he keeps with him throughout the book is hope can get you through hard times. From the start of the book Yanek had been trying to hold onto the happy things about life.
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.
After going through so much, many people do not have the same mindset as they did before. Being tortured and watching others being tortured changes a person’s life, especially Elie’s, his father’s, Moshe the Beadle’s, and Rabbi Eliahou’s. Elie Wiesel, the author of Night, shares his own experience of going through a concentration camp, and it is clear that many things in his life changed
Ruth Posner born in 1933 in Warsaw, Poland. She was only 12 years old when World War II began. She lost both her mother and father in a matter of days and was stuck in the middle of the Holocaust all alone. Before her father passed away, he had been making a plan to ensure the safety of his child. He made sure that her aunt whose two children had already been killed by Nazis would be there for her and be by her side until death.
One Survivor Remembers gives us a new perspective and view of one of our world’s biggest tragedies in history; The Holocaust. Most people have heard the history lessons behind the Holocaust and all the details pertaining to what happening during the terrific event, but not many have actually heard the story from a real person, who actually suffered during the time and experienced all the horrible situations that took place during the time. In One Survivor Remembers; a short film by Kary Antholis, Gerda Weissmann Klein tells us about her six-year ordeal as a victim of the terrific events that took place in the the Holocaust. This story told by Gerda Weissmann Klein really opened my eyes and put an emotional story behind the Holocaust. In my opinion, I believe this film was very interesting to watch and many different things done by the creators of this film really helped show bring Gerda’s story to live in the minds of all the viewers.
The response to the “ Surviving Auschwitz ” The film named Surviving Auschwitz is a the true story narrated by Henia who was one of the victims in the concentration camp. She described the things she has been lived through in that dark place. This film make me feel sad and terrible, I can't imagine how hard the life in concentration camp was, until I saw those pictures in the move. How can those people do that, they even not think the Jews are human, it is the true story of the lost of humanity!
In Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys a family is ripped apart by russian soldiers and sent to prison camps. The prison camps have the worst living conditions and the soldiers are brutal to anyone. Lina meets Andrius in the camps, a friend who helps her stay strong while she is imprisoned for 12 years and loses both parents and almost her brother. Lina finds her hope even in the darkest situations, because hope is bright and believing in a brighter future it isn't giving up because of fear. Ruta Sepetys theme of the power of hope on a survivor is expressed when a young girl loses everything, finds