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Chapter 46
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Between Shades of Gray, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Morality, Integrity, and Sacrifice
Strength and Identity
The Power of Art
Genocide
Women and Mothers
Summary
Analysis
Eventually, Mrs. Rimas receives a letter. Everyone crowds inside her shack to read it. At the gathering, Lina sees Andrius and has a short but polite conversation with him for the first time in weeks. The letters are from Mirs. Rimas’ husband, meaning he is alive. He writes of a summer camp, and says it is beautiful, as described in Psalm 102. Unfortunately, the letter is in code, and when Jonas reads the passage from the Bible, it is about sadness, suffering, and starvation. Andrius quietly points out that he is at least alive.
The arrival of the first letter is moment of disappointment for the deportees. Most of them have family members in other camps run by the NKVD, and they all hope they are in far better conditions than they endure in Altai. However, the bleakness of the psalm shows that everywhere, people are starving and suffering. Even if they are alive now, there is no telling how long they will survive.
Themes
