Women and Mothers Theme Analysis

Though Lina’s description of her life in Lithuania depicts traditional gender roles for men and women, such roles are often broken down in the camps. Lina’s mother Elena, for example, becomes a matriarch and protector for their group of deportees. Though a homemaker back in Lithuania, she was educated in Moscow as a young woman. This means that she is fluent in Russian as well as Lithuanian, and therefore one of the only deportees who can communicate with the guards. Elena’s strength and willingness to stand up to the guards render her an important figure in the community of deportees. Though there are men on their journey and in the camps, all look to Elena for strength and comfort in their difficult times.

In the absence of able-bodied men, women in the labor camp generally become the providers of food and resources for the deportees. Mothers’ devotion to their children in the novel is portrayed as almost absolute, as Lina’s mother gives up her own food (and life) to protect those around her, and Andrius’ mother Mrs. Arvydas does anything and everything to try and protect him: first making sure that the NKVD believed he was mentally disabled (the only way they would allow him to survive because his father had been in the Lithuanian military), and then prostituting herself in exchange for his survival. These mothers are willing not only to protect their own children, but extend their maternal instinct to others as well.

The novel further portrays the power and influence of women and mothers to be universal, able to cut across even the chasm between Soviet camp guards and their prisoners. For example, Nikolai Kretszky, one of the NKVD guards who tortures the Vilkases most often, breaks down at the loss of his mother in front of Lina, who finds herself comforting the hand that beats her. The respect that children have for their mothers is a love that bonds people across enemy lines. The breakdown of traditional gender norms that view men as strong and women as weak is exemplified in Andrius’ admiration and love for Lina. It is Andrius who first tells Lina that she is “Krasivaya,” and challenges her to discover the meaning of the Russian word. Lina finally learns it from Kretszky, who uses it to describe Elena: “Beautiful, but strong.” The women in the labor camp may no longer be conventionally beautiful because of their lack of food and resources, but their fierce will to live and preserve the lives of others makes them both beautiful and strong.