Between Shades of Gray

Jonas Vilkas is Lina’s younger brother. Like his sister, he also has to grow up much faster and confront more about the brutality of human beings than most children. Jonas comes close to death twice in the novel. It is often the thought of his survival that motivates Lina, from the first night they are taken, when “the sound of [her] ten-year-old brother running about his room pulled a cord within” (26) her, to the question Lina asks herself after her mother dies—what would Jonas do if Lina also died?

Like any little brother, Jonas sometimes antagonizes his sister or makes her life more difficult and he sometimes participates in questionable activities—such as their joint questioning of their mother’s relation to the NKVD guard Nikolai Kretzsky. Though there is less emphasis on Jonas’s story in the novel, it is clear that he is also following in his parents’ footsteps—choosing what is right and what is loving over bitterness and hatred.

Elena Vilkas is the mother of Lina and Jonas. She is consistently characterized as loving, compassionate, and self-sacrificing. She is a paragon of the virtue of love, even, or perhaps especially, in the face of hate and brutality. Throughout the novel, she shares everything she has for the comfort and care of others—not just her own children—making friends of some of the prickliest characters, like the bald man, Ulyushka, and Nikolai Kretzsky. Elena inspires others with what the gray-haired man calls her “beautiful spirit” (310). The one thing that breaks this spirit, finally, is the news of the death of her husband, Kostas. Though Elena remains hopeful, helpful, and upbeat through much deprivation and loss, this final loss is too much for her, and she dies about two months after she learns that Kostas has been shot.

Kostas Vilkas is Lina and Jonas’s father and Elena’s husband. Though we only see him once in the present time of the novel, he is a central figure in the emotional lives of his family as they negotiate the brutality of life in Siberia, and he is often the main focus of Lina’s flashbacks. Like his wife, Kostas is a symbol of moral goodness. He does what he believes is morally right, regardless of reward or consequence. The cost is high, as he and his wife both pay with their lives, and their children lose twelve years of theirs to an “arctic hell” (286), but his example is heroic. Like his wife, he sacrifices everything for his ideals.

Andrius Arvydas is the seventeen-year-old boy (nineteen by the end of the novel) whom Lina falls in love with. In the Epilogue we learn that they find each other and marry after finally leaving Siberia and getting back to Lithuania. Andrius is another example of someone who works for the moral good—taking many risks for the benefit of others, including stealing food, and reminding Lina to let go of her hate and fear in order to survive with her own morality and sanity intact.  

Mr. Stalas, the irascible man who breaks his leg jumping out of the back of the truck while they are still in Kaunaus, is a consistently troubling presence for readers and characters alike. His version of the “truth” is the most pessimistic, and he is not well-liked by anyone around him. Elena Vilkas, however, takes special care of him, and he is not shunned even after he tells Lina the truth about why her family was deported and admits to being a Soviet informant. When Elena dies, Mr. Stalas is clearly upset, wondering why it is so hard for him to do the same. By the end of the novel, however, he seems to have changed for the better, and for the first time shows himself willing to work for the good of others when Dr. Samodurov asks for help caring for all the sick and dying.

Miss Grybas is a teacher who helps Elena care for the sick and injured during their journey to Siberia. She remains part of their circle of friends in Altai, but is not moved with the rest of the group to the Arctic. When she is left behind, she begs them not to forget her and vows to sign the paper that states she is a criminal sentenced to twenty-five years hard labor so she will be allowed to teach the children in the camp and make visits to the nearby town.

Like Miss Grybas, Mrs. Rimas also helps Elena care for the people in their group. She is especially good with the children and takes a special interest in caring for Ona and her baby. She is part of the group sent to the Arctic, and like Mr. Stalas, survives to the end of the book.

Mr. Lukas, also referred to as “the gray-haired man,” or as “the man who wound his watch,” serves as a counterpoint to Mr. Stalas. Where the bald man is nasty and tactless, Mr. Lukas is circumspect and calm, and, with Elena Vilkas, helps to lead the group as a whole. He winds his watch because it soothes him, and references to his watch-winding become a touchstone for the reader throughout the novel. The gray-haired man is there to witness Elena’s death, but freezes to death himself shortly after.

Ona and her daughter are one of the more tragic examples of Soviet brutality—as they are dragged from the hospital moments after Ona has given birth. Ona, still bleeding and in a hospital gown, is thrown onto a dirty and crowded train where she cannot successfully breastfeed her daughter. Ona’s daughter eventually dies from lack of nourishment. In her grief, Ona attacks a guard and is shot in the head and left on the side of the railroad.

Janina and Liale are a kind of miniature version of Ona and her daughter. Janina is a little girl deported with her mother. She has a doll she named Liale, which the NKVD “kills” by using it for target practice. As a result of this and the overall trauma of being deported, Janina goes a little insane with grief. Her crying does not get her shot, but she is hit on the head with a gun. From then on, she talks to her doll who is “up in heaven” (248). Janina also endures her own mother’s attempt to strangle her. In the aftermath of that event, she bonds with Lina and Lina with her.

Kretzsky is one of the most important characters in the book, as his character is in almost constant tension with Lina’s. Though Elena sees something in Kretzsky, who in her eyes is “just a boy” (259), Lina hates him as a representative of all that she loathes about the Soviets. Kretzsky’s story is more complex than Lina knows, and it turns out that he hates himself just as much as Lina does. It is only when Lina and Kretzsky have bond over their grief over the loss of their mothers that the book’s resolution can happen. Because Lina shows Kretzsky empathy, and he is able to respond in kind, he is also motivated to finally do what is morally right. He leaves the camp and finds Dr. Samodurov, whose arrival at the camp marks a turning point—away from starvation and death.

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Unlike Kretzsky, Komorov and Ivanov are two versions of the same unredeemable character—the evil NKVD officer. Komorov is the egomaniacal commander at the camp in Altai who demands that Lina draw a flattering portrait of him, when what she really wants to draw is his head replaced by a nest of snakes. Ivanov is the NKVD guard in the Arctic camp who has rotten teeth and a worse disposition. He is as cruel as possible, laughing at even the prisoners’ most basic requests. He is also a former guard at the prison where Kostas Vilkas was thought to be held, and he is the one to tell Elena of her husband’s death by execution.