Between Shades of Gray

[Karina]

What are your thoughts on Lina and her situation? Is there any new knowledge you are gaining about historical events? Be sure to do a little research to put things into context.

[Gabriela]

My thoughts on Lina and her situation are that it has a large underlying theme of loss of innocence because of all of the things she is forced to do and face while being deported. She has to deal with seeing things that someone her age shouldn’t have to deal with seeing, and doing things that completely strip her of her childhood. I believe her having to leave behind her sketch book and draw in the dirt is symbolic to this theme as she left behind her innocence and had to mature and change quickly to survive. The knowledge I am gaining from this historical event are things I already knew happened in the holocaust, but they are explained in more detail and feel more real. Themes such as dehumanization were obvious to me, yet reading about how the cart they were deported on was filled with working women and kids and it was still labeled “thrives and prostitutes” made the situation more intense and gave me more knowledge on just how horrible the dehumanization was.

[Ashley]

Lina and her situation is just completely depressing. It is almost exactly the same as what we read with Ellie Wiesel and his experience but with more detail of what's actually happening. I think the most horrifying thing about the book so far is that she's our age (fifteen) and I can not even imagine what I would do in her situation. The fear of losing my family is extremely high so, when towards the beginning she almost lost her brother I was so terrified. I'm gaining more visual experience of what actually happened and what it was like.

[Amaya]

I feel terribly sorry for Lina and her situation because no kid should go through that. Lina had a huge passion for art and she missed out on her opportunity to go to a good art school but she got deported. I’ve also read that once a lady gave birth, they forced her into the cattle cars with her newborn baby which was extremely sad. I think that Lina is slowly starting to lose her innocence with the horrible atrocities she’s witnessed.