Lina is the main character and the story is told from her point of view. The flashbacks that happen are from her point of view so I can tell this story is told from her perspective. "They took me in my nightgown. thinking back, the signs were there..." (Sepetys, 1). Lina is a dynamic character, because she goes through an internal change through the story. She goes from an innocent little girl of age 15, to a women who went through the pain of being deported.

Lina

"I took our family photo from the shelf and placed the gold frame faceup in the bottom of the empty suitcase. The faces stared back at me, happy, unaware." (7). This quote directly characterizes her and her family as happy, and unaware. "But we couldn't be going to jail. We had done nothing wrong." (7). This quote directly tells us they had not actually committed a crime.

Characterization

Andrius is a minor character compared to Lina. He is older than Lina and more mature, they both had to grow up fast. They fought at times but overall they had to work together to get through it. He is a round character, I know this because it shows the many sides of him. We see the hurt part of him, the part of him that is filled with anger, but we also see the side of him that is caring. When they first introduced the character the author did use a name.

Andrius

Characterization

"We looked at each other, silent and awkward. "where is your dad ?" blurted Jonas. "In the Lithuanian army." The boy paused "He's been gone for a while."΅(36). At this point in the story we learn about this nameless character indirectly we can tell hes a sensitive character, the topic of his father is sensitive to him.

Setting

The setting of this story changes throughout the story, the story is first set in there home where they are taken. "The soviet secret police had no business at our house. I walked down the hallway to listen and peeked around the corner."(4). The time that this story takes place in the time of Hitler. Throughout the story they go from their home, to cattle cars where they are then taken to a camp where they stay for much of the story. This establishes that they are not safe, the NKVD can just come into their home.

Exposition

The Exposition of this story is when Lina's family was taken, there house was invaded and they were taken from it. It was all confusion, they kept asking themselves why. There family was separated, but at least they had each other.

Rising Action

The rising action of this story is when they are forced into cattle cars and forced into camps. They traveled many miles in these cattle cars with nothing but a bathroom hole and a daily bucket of slop and water to share between 40 people.

Climax

The climax of this story is when Lina and her brother, and her mother leave the old camp where they knew people, to go to a new one.

Falling action

The falling action is when Lina mom dies at the new camp , this is them becoming weak.