Between Shades Of Gray Essay

Mohammed Islam 711 Between Shades of Gray Essay

Sometimes, drawings can be used to express yourself and your emotions during the worst of times. In the book Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, which takes perspective of a Lithuanian girl named Lina Vilkas who is held in captive along with her brother Jonas Vilkas and mother Elena Vilkas, by the NKVD, or the Soviets. In order for her and her family to survive, they would have to work for the NKVD, where they would then receive a small portion of bread which they can barely survive on. When Lina was in the villages, she would draw a lot to express how she feels, and to send pictures to her father who was separated from the rest of the family. Drawings were big in this book, as it was a symbol that symbolized Lina’s feelings, how she would draw to show how she feels, and show more of her perspective during the time.

In the book, Lina would draw so she can show her feelings to others. In page, 210, it states, “It’s not very good,” I said, “but it’s a better angle. Smaller nostrils.... I opened my mouth. Nothing came out. “Merry Christmas,” I finally said.” From here we can see that to express how she felt towards Andrius, she drew a picture of him. Even though the drawing wasn’t perfect, it still showed how Lina felt thankful to meet someone like Andrius, and how she was thankful for Andrius stealing from the Nkvd which is a very risky task and gives to her family. Also, the drawings were a gift for Andrius so she can let Andrius know that she appreciated what the things he has done for him. Another way she used drawings to express her feelings is in page 337, where it states, “The writings and drawings you hold in your hands were buried in the year 1954, after returning from Siberia with my brother, where we were imprisoned for for twelve years.” In that scenario, Lina used the drawings to symbolize her rough times when she was in the prison villages. She used her drawings that she drew to represent how she felt when she was under the hands of the NKVD.

Not only did Lina’s drawings show how she felt, but it showed her perspective, or what she thinks of other people. In the story on page 215, it states, “It started. Snakes slithered out of his collar and wrapped themselves around his face, hissing at me.” This shows that when Lina draws, her perspective of what she’s drawing depends on how she sees the drawing. In that case, Lina believes that the commander is a horrible man, so she imagines him as a dirty, bad figure. Also, this shows how in Lina’s perspective, the commander that she is drawing is a horrible person. Another example of this is also in page 215, it states, “I blinked. A gray skull sat on his neck, its jaws flapping, laughing.” From here we can also see that in Lina’s perspective, not only did she see the commander as a horrible figure, she saw him as an evil character. The skull shows that the Commander is cold-blooded and likes to see the pain of other. The drawings show the perspective of Lina on the NKVD officers and officials.

In conclusion, drawings played a big role in the book Between Shades of Gray. Not only were the drawings used to express how Lina felt, but it was also used to show the perspective of Lina to the NKVD officers.