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Chapter 74
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
November comes, and Elena grows more despondent. The family pray for Kostas, and this is the only time Elena can muster a smile. Lina dreams of Andrius at night. A storm is coming, but Ivanov won’t give them a ration, since he says they’re not going to work. Lina steals wood from the NKVD barracks so she can survive. When she goes to the wood stacks, she sees Elena talking to Ivanov and Kretszky. Ivanov laughs, mimes shooting a gun to his head, and leaves. Elena flinches and her knees buckle. Kretszky catches her before she falls. Lina runs to her mother, who is now sobbing. Kretszky reveals that there has been news that Kostas was shot in Krasnoyarsk prison. Lina refuses to believe it is true, and tells Kretszky to go away and that she hates him. Elena is too distraught to walk, and Lina cries out for help. Mrs. Rimas helps them to the hut. They tell Jonas what they have learned, and they all come together to comfort one another.
Just when Lina thinks things can’t get much worse, Ivanov brings the news that Kostas has been shot, hundreds of miles away from the rest of his family and loved ones. Elena, Lina, and Jonas are not even sure if he ever knew they were still alive. The memory of Kostas and the hope that they would one day be reunited was one of the main things keeping Elena’s optimism afloat. Now that she believes he is dead, she has nothing outside of her children to hope for. Kretszky, who was previously a source of terror in the first labor camp, reveals bits of humanity, such as when he catches Elena and comforts her here. Lina, distraught over the news and overwhelmed with hatred for the NKVD, lashes out at Kretszky.
Themes
