Ruta Sepetys’s novel Between Shades of Gray is set across Eurasia during World War II, from the Baltic Sea to Laptev Sea, from Lithuania to Siberia. Initially, the reader is introduced to a cozy, sleeping home with an “evening breeze float[ing] through the open window” (Sepetys 3). However, the peace in interrupted by “an urgent booming” (Sepetys 4), the NKVD’s fists pummeling the wooden door, intending to capture the Vilkas family and toss them in a train to a work camp. “The wet smell of feces and urine hovered over [the train car] like a filthy blanket” (Sepetys 50) as “Death…[began] to gather like a crop” (Sepetys 64), the grime contrasting with “the wet green field” (Sepetys 65). This is important to the book as it showcases how the Soviets
…show more content…
In the beginning, Anne lives in her house with no worry other than if a boy likes her or not; she feels safe and comfortable, as Lina felt in the moment before the Soviets burst into her home. Then, when Margot is called to a work camp—whose conditions would be similar to those of Lina’s camp—the Franks are rushed to the Secret Annexe where they would be joined by the Van Daans. It is described by Anne to be “not…so well organized” (Frank 16) until she and her father tidy it, well-hidden, and okay. However, through the course of the novel Anne finds the Secret Annexe to be cramped with the eight inhabitants and the inability to even crack a window, similar to the train the Vilkas family journeyed in. She also finds the forced quiet difficult, the “atmosphere…strained” (Frank 208), and the environment of relentless criticism irritating. Furthermore, her hunger and disappointment in “the bad food” (Frank 240) makes her gloomy. This detail is alike to Lina’s experience only in the gnawing hunger that sits emptily in their stomachs, Anne being given several meals a day and Lina’s mother having to pay to boil a potato while Lina’s brother’s teeth turns colors from scurvy. Finally, Between Shades of Gray and Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl share a claustrophobic setting whose residents are famished and
In the beginning, Anne lives in her house with no worry other than if a boy likes her or not; she feels safe and comfortable, as Lina felt in the moment before the Soviets burst into her home. Then, when Margot is called to a work camp—whose conditions would be similar to those of Lina’s camp—the Franks are rushed to the Secret Annexe where they would be joined by the Van Daans. It is described by Anne to be “not…so well organized” (Frank 16) until she and her father tidy it, well-hidden, and okay. However, through the course of the novel Anne finds the Secret Annexe to be cramped with the eight inhabitants and the inability to even crack a window, similar to the train the Vilkas family journeyed in. She also finds the forced quiet difficult, the “atmosphere…strained” (Frank 208), and the environment of relentless criticism irritating. Furthermore, her hunger and disappointment in “the bad food” (Frank 240) makes her gloomy. This detail is alike to Lina’s experience only in the gnawing hunger that sits emptily in their stomachs, Anne being given several meals a day and Lina’s mother having to pay to boil a potato while Lina’s brother’s teeth turns colors from scurvy. Finally, Between Shades of Gray and Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl share a claustrophobic setting whose residents are famished and