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Chapter 75
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
Lina cannot sleep. Every time she tries, she can only picture her father’s bloody face through the bathroom hole. She hopes Kretszky had the wrong information, and that there is a mistake. She feels her drawings have failed. She tries to sketch, but is too upset even to do the thing she loves. The storm rages on, and Elena grows even weaker. Still, she insists on shoveling snow from the entrance to the hut. It is so cold that the moisture in Lina’s nostrils freezes. She worries how they will survive until the polar night ends in March. On November 20, Lina remembers that it’s Andrius’ birthday. Lina wishes him a happy birthday to herself, and reads Dombey and Son. She flips through the pages and finds little notes he has written to her, saying he is thinking of her. She thinks of him too.
Even though Elena has lost much of her hope when she hears that Kostas has died, she continues to do her best to help her children and the other deportees survive. Lina has also lost her sense of direction, as shown by her inability to draw. For so long, she drew for her father, in the hopes that he would find her sketches and find her. With no one to draw for, she feels lost and hopeless. Yet the memory of Andrius heartens her, and the notes in the novel make her feel like they are communicating. Andrius gives Lina someone to keep drawing for.
Themes
