While reading Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, I found that the common theme of the book is that whenever you are going through tough times, the one thing to always keep with you is courage. On page 319, Lina says, “ Was it it harder to die, or harder to be the one that survived?” I think this is the perfect quote to keep in mind throughout the book and after to keep as a lesson learned. In the time period of the book, people all of the world were going through a tough experience, but like the characters in Between Shades of Gray, the amount of courage an individual can keep is the only thing they can control. In this quote, it shows that in these times courage was a necessity, and that is the main reason LIna and her brother Jonas
