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Chapter 59
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
On the first warm day of spring, Andrius takes Lina aside and warns her that people are being moved, and that while he is not on the list for relocation, Lina, Jonas, and Elena are. Lina runs to tell Elena, who optimistically theorizes that they are perhaps going someplace better or closer to Kostas. In a flashback, Lina recalls listening to her parents discuss trying to arrange passage for some people to Germany. Lina asks who they are trying to help, and her parents stop talking. Elena claims they are discussing one of Kostas’ colleagues, and Kostas leaves the house, saying he will return for dinner.
This flashback reminds Lina that there had been murmurs of relocations in her household long before the family’s deportation. Though many of the deportees on the list hope they are going someplace better, Lina and Elena know that there is little chance they are being rewarded by the relocation, particularly since they have not signed the documents. Still, some remaining haven’t signed either, showing the arbitrary nature of the NKVD’s cruelty.
Themes
Rumors fly around the camp. One day everyone gathers in the bald man’s shack to discuss the changes to come. Mrs. Rimas is on the list, but Miss Grybas is not. All of this information was received from Mrs. Arvydas. They speculate how to prepare for another journey, and pray they will not be put back onto train cars. Miss Grybas wants to sign the documents so that she can go into town and communicate with those leaving using letters, and teach the children in the camp. Others urge her not to, but she doesn’t feel that she has a choice.
Even though Mrs. Arvydas cannot be there to support the deportees on a day-to-day basis, she and Andrius still do their part to resist the NKVD by passing along food and information. Here, the NKVD have put the deportees in a situation such that people like Miss Grybas feel they must set aside their beliefs, morals, and dignity to give into NKVD demands in order to survive.
Themes
