Quiz Between Shades of Gray Ruta Sepetys

Between Shades of Gray Quiz

This 20-question quiz covers the entire span of Ruta Sepetys's Between Shades of Gray, from the 1941 deportation to the 1954 epilogue. Each section tests a different skill: recalling plot events, understanding character motives, interpreting themes and symbols, and making connections beyond the story. After you finish, check the answer key below for explanations. For more study aids, visit our questions and answers or read the ending explained.

Plot and Sequence (Questions 1–8)

  1. What event triggers the immediate deportation of Lina's family?

    • A) A neighbor reports them to the NKVD
    • B) Her father is caught hiding weapons
    • C) NKVD officers pound on their door and order them to pack in twenty minutes
    • D) They are caught trying to escape Lithuania

  2. In what year does the main action of the novel begin? (Short answer)

  3. What specific object does Lina's mother use to bribe the NKVD officer to release Jonas at the train station?

    • A) A wad of rubles
    • B) Her amber pendant
    • C) A gold pocket watch
    • D) Lina's sketchbook

  4. Where does Lina's father Kostas tell them they are being sent when they find him under the men's train car?

    • A) To a work camp near Moscow
    • B) To Siberia
    • C) To a prison in Kaunas
    • D) To Germany

  5. What name does Lina's mother use for the guard Kretzsky that shocks Jonas and Lina? (Short answer)

  6. What gift does Andrius present to Lina for her sixteenth birthday in the camp?

    • A) A hand-carved stone
    • B) A Russian copy of Dombey and Son
    • C) A pencil and paper
    • D) A loaf of bread

  7. What happens to Lina's mother Elena during the winter at Trofimovsk?

    • A) She is shot by the NKVD
    • B) She is transferred to another camp
    • C) She dies of illness and starvation
    • D) She escapes with the Evenks

  8. In the epilogue set in 1995, what is discovered buried in Kaunas? (Short answer)

Character Motivation (Questions 9–13)

  1. Why does Elena smash her best china before leaving her home?

    • A) To prevent the NKVD from stealing it
    • B) Out of spite toward her husband
    • C) To prove she loves the china so much she cannot bear to leave it intact
    • D) To use the pieces as weapons

  2. Why does Lina's mother pretend not to know her cousin Regina when they meet on the truck? (Short answer)

  3. What drives Mrs. Arvydas to collaborate with the NKVD officers?

    • A) She wants better food for herself
    • B) The NKVD threaten to kill her son Andrius unless she sleeps with them
    • C) She is a Soviet sympathizer
    • D) Lina misjudges her; she is actually spying for the partisans

  4. Why does the bald man (Mr. Stalas) constantly predict death and later confess he wishes to die?

    • A) He is suffering from a terminal disease
    • B) He helped the NKVD compile arrest lists and feels guilty for his betrayal
    • C) He wants to provoke the guards into killing him
    • D) He is mentally ill from the long journey

  5. Why does Lina decide to continue drawing and writing even after the commander threatens her? (Short answer)

Theme and Symbol (Questions 14–17)

  1. What does the pocket watch symbolize in the story?

    • A) The value of time
    • B) The dehumanized worth of a human life under Soviet oppression
    • C) The family's wealth
    • D) The passage of history

  2. What does the oak tree represent for Lina and her family?

    • A) Strength and endurance
    • B) A secret code to help family members find each other
    • C) A memory of their home
    • D) The Lithuanian national symbol

  3. What does the stone with sparkles that Andrius gives Lina come to symbolize throughout the novel? (Short answer)

  4. What is the main significance of the novel's title Between Shades of Gray?

    • A) The absence of color in the Arctic landscape
    • B) The moral ambiguity of characters and events, refusing a simple black-and-white view
    • C) Lina's artistic medium of graphite
    • D) The fog of war

Synthesis (Questions 18–20)

  1. Compare Lina's use of art in the novel to Anne Frank's use of her diary. In what ways are their acts of documenting similar? (Short answer)

  2. How does the novel challenge a simple black-and-white view of good and evil? Provide one example of a morally complex character.

    • A) It shows that some characters are purely good
    • B) Through Kretzsky, who shows kindness despite being a Soviet guard
    • C) It suggests that all humans are evil
    • D) By focusing only on the victims' goodness

  3. According to the author's note and epilogue, what message does Ruta Sepetys hope readers take away from this story? (Short answer)

Answer Key

Plot and Sequence

  1. C – NKVD officers pound on their door on June 14, 1941, and order them to pack in twenty minutes (Chapter 1 of the outline).
  2. 1941 – The novel opens on June 14, 1941, just before the mass deportations.
  3. C – A gold pocket watch (the mother's father's engraved watch) is the final bribe that secures Jonas's release (Chapter 2 and Chapter 7 outline).
  4. B – Kostas tells them they are being deported to Siberia (Chapter 11 outline).
  5. Nikolai – Mother calls Kretzsky "Nikolai" at the Angara River, shocking Jonas (Chapter 65 outline).
  6. B – Andrius gives her a Russian copy of Dombey and Son (Chapter 58 outline).
  7. C – Elena dies of illness and starvation in the winter at Trofimovsk (Chapters 79-80 outline).
  8. A wooden box containing a glass jar of papers – The epilogue reveals a construction digger finds Lina's buried testimony (Epilogue outline).

Character Motivation

  1. C – She tells Jonas, "Because I love them so much," turning destruction into an act of defiance and control (Chapter 3 outline and discussion question from evidence).
  2. To protect herself and the family – Elena avoids contact with Regina to prevent drawing attention or suspicion; the outline says she "rejects her cousin Regina" (Chapter 5 outline).
  3. B – Andrius reveals his mother prostitutes herself to the NKVD to save his life (Chapter 39 outline).
  4. B – He confesses he helped compile the lists of professionals for arrest and feels unbearable guilt; his survival is his punishment (Chapter 80 outline).
  5. To leave a trail for her father and to document the truth of Soviet atrocities – Lina vows to use art as resistance (Chapters 14, 27, 61 outline).

Theme and Symbol

  1. B – Lina reflects that her brother's life was "worth a pocket watch," highlighting dehumanization (Chapter 2 outline).
  2. B – The oak tree is a secret code: Kostas tells them to remember it so he can find them later (Chapter 11 outline).
  3. Hope and human connection – The stone is a token of Andrius's friendship and love that Lina keeps through all trials (Chapters 21, 25, 62, 85 outline).
  4. B – The title reflects moral ambiguity; Sepetys explains in the interview that things are not black or white, and Kretzsky represents that gray area of kindness within cruelty.

Synthesis

  1. Both Lina and Anne Frank use their art/diary to record truth, maintain identity, and resist oppression. Lina draws to leave a trace for her father and document suffering; Anne writes to preserve her thoughts. Both acts are dangerous but essential for survival of spirit (Author's Note and discussion questions from evidence).
  2. B – Kretzsky is the prime example of a morally gray character: he enforces NKVD orders but also shows compassion, helps Lina's mother, and later cries over her death (Interview with Sepetys, Chapter 82 outline).
  3. Love is the most powerful force; survival depends on love of country, family, or God, and hope must endure. Sepetys writes that survivors survived through love, and the epilogue urges compassion and action against evil (Author's Note, Interview, Epilogue).

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