Between Shades Of Gray Reflection

“Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth? That morning, my brothers was worth a pocket watch.” This quote from Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys was the beginning of a changing moment in my life. I never knew that at the age of 15 a book would change my life so much. Between Shades of Gray followed the story of a young Lithuanian girl and her family being ripped away from their home and being forced into a concentration camp in Siberia by the Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin. Up until that point of my life the only genocide we had ever been taught was the Holocaust which specifically targeted Jewish families at the hands of Adolf Hitler. Growing up I was never able to listen to the torture that the Jews and untouchables endured.

Every word of this work sent chills down my spine, I could not speak, all I could do was cry. This novel changed me in a way no other work has ever done. It made me realize that the life I live, I take for granted. Every day I am able to wake up to a roof over my head without the fear of being ripped away from my home. Whenever I feel ungrateful, I look back at this book and pray. Prior to this novel, I was ignorant to the horrors of the world around me as I was wrapped in a velvet blanket, shielded from any lingering danger my entire life. This book helped me understand what these innocent people had to endure for years with no end in sight. The most important lesson this book taught me was hope. After reading the novel, I researched the real stories of victims and I was inspired by their sense of hope. Despite almost a decade in captivity, they never gave up on returning home and returning their loved ones. Every day we walk around holding grudges for things that happened weeks even years ago; these people were tortured and watched their families killed and not once did they speak of any hatred towards their capturer’s. Instead, they showed love. They prayed for their souls to