Between Shades of Gray

Between Shades of Gray

Ruta Sepetys

Mariah, Vanessa, Kaylah

Falling Action

After arriving at their new destination they are immediately put to hard work unloading supplies for the NKVD soldiers to survive through the winter. As Lina trudges through the snow of the polar night to fetch more supplies for her jurta, she turns to see her mother, Ivanov, and Kretzsky having a discussion. Lina sees Ivanov get closer into her mothers face. He fakes a gun and says BANG!, then walks away laughing. Kretzsky grabs Lina' s mother at her waist, and Mother leans onto his chest crying and beating on his shoulder. Lina takes off to her mother screaming. She grabs her mother and snatches her mother from Kretzsky. Asking mother what happened and weeping Mother responds "KOSTAS!!" Kretzsky says "Shot in Krasnoyark prison!"

Theme

External Conflict

A Thousand Years by Christina Perri fits for Between Shades of Gray because she talks about continuous love for someone. In the books case Lina is 1: madly in love with Andrius but she has to leave him behind in Siberia and 2: she misses her father but she knows not to forget about him. Love and Kindness can take you a long way in life.

Lina's external conflict would be man vs. society. The NKVD soldiers were taking her to Siberia and her and her family were taken as well. The NKVD soldiers were playing them like a deck of cards and they were enjoying every minute of it. All of the dying and depression didn't bother them one bit. If you grieved you got shot in the head (like Ona.)

Exposition

In Russia in 1914, Papa is at work, Lina, Jonas, and Mother are at home. The NKVD soldiers break into their home and tell them that they have 20 minutes to pack as much as they can. The NKVD were taking them to Siberia

Climax

As Lina goes to find food, Andrius finds her and delivers terrible news to her. Andrius tells Lina that they are getting moved to another camp. Lina has many thoughts rushing through her head but the first question that comes running out of her mouth is 'Are you on the list?' As dozens of emotions run through her head, she is happy to possibly see papa but is very disappointed to leave Andrius. As she kisses him, she leaves to go deliver the message to everyone else, but arrives to a house full of bickering people discussing the topic already. This is the biggest news they've heard in the whole time that they had been at the camp.

Resolution

Lina' s Mother dies. Andrius and Lina find their way back to each other and are reunited. In the end, Lina and Andrius get married.

Rising Action

As the NKVD guards tried to seperate Jonas from Mother and Lina, his life was worth a pocket watch. After being unexpectedly rushed out of their house, Lina forgot to change her clothes. The family met a new person by the name of Andrius. After weeks maybe even months of not, showering they finally get to enjoy being clean. Everybody arrived at their destination and Jonas was seperated from Lina and Mother and all three were immediately forced into hard labor. As one of the only ones that could speak Russian and English, Lina's mother was asked to spy. As a result of being fed only 30 grams of bread for each day of work, Jonas got sick.

Mood

Foreshadowing

The mood of the story is more of a romantic and sad mood. While reading we felt sad when the characters in the book were sad. Also when the book was leaning towards a more romantic mood we felt the romance going along with it.

After telling Lina about the news of her and many others at the camp, Andrius gives Lina a book for her birthday. The next day Lina is aclled to board the train and Andrius calls her over towards him. He mouths to her as she walks to him "I'll find you." Closer together Andrius whispers to her " I'll find you." As time progresses Lina never forgets about Andrius and they finally meet again.

Between Shades of Gray