Between Shades of Grey and Night Essay

Between Shades of Grey and Night Essay

By Matthew Breitman                        711

            Conditions during the Holocaust and the deportation of the Baltic Region were more than terrible. They were atrocious. People were starved, beat, and mutilated. Night, a book by Elie Wiesel is about his experience during the Holocaust. He writes about how he struggled to survive as he was famished, tired, and his family was dead. Between Shades of Grey is a book written by Ruta Sepetys about a teenage girl, Lina, and her family, as they were deported and separated from their father. They were forced to work, by the NKVD guards, who were the Soviet and secret police. They were hungry and treated awfully. Even though the two books are about two different events that took place around the same time, Lina and Wiesel, the main protagonists, went through similar and different conditions. Although they both suffered miserably.

            In Night, Elie Wiesel was whipped, starved, and was forced to run through the freezing cold. After Wiesel sees Idek (his Kapo, or prisoner assigned by the Nazi’s to supervise forced labor), lying with a half-naked girl, Wiesel breaks out laughing. Idek chokes him, and says he will be punished. He gathered a whole unit of prisoners for roll call. He brings up a box and tells Wiesel to lie on it. Wiesel says, “Then I was aware of nothing but the strokes of the whip. ‘One… Two…,’ he counted. He took his time between each stroke. Only the first ones really hurt me.” This part in the book, really shows how brutal the Nazi’s were. How they tried to be superior and how no one could defy them. How being disrespectful can result in twenty five strokes from a whip. Idek was a horrible person, and I believe he took much of his anger out on the Jews. He not only whipped Elie, but savagely beat him, and hit his father continuously with an iron bar. Since he was in power he felt he could do anything he wanted, including being a savage. If Wiesel was next to Idek, then he was surely in terrible conditions. Later in the story, as the Russians approach Buna, (the camp where Wiesel is being held), all prisoners are evacuated and are forced to run in the middle of winter, to a new camp called Buchenwald. As they are running, Wiesel says, “Our limbs numb with cold despite the running, our throats parched, famished, breathless, on we went.” The prisoners were tired, starving, but they just had to keep on running. Many people died because they were so weak, but the Nazi’s didn’t care. They made them keep jogging through snow in thin clothes. The prisoners were dying, but the Nazi’s thought of it as a test. Whoever makes it, is strong, and whoever doesn’t, fails. The conditions were abysmal. People were trampled and forced to sleep in the snow. Nazi’s didn’t blink an eye as many prisoners died. Elie Wiesel suffered horrendously because he was mistreated by being starved, whipped, and made run in winter.

            Lina Vilkas, the protagonist from Between Shades of Grey suffered as she was deported from Lithuania and put in labor camps. When Lina and the other prisoners said they wouldn’t sign papers, (documents that state that they will be arrested and have to stay in labor camps for 25 years), one NKVD officer named Komorov forced Lina and other people into a hole that they dug. He shot around them, and was shoving dirt onto them. Lina said, “More dirt crumbled above our heads. Komorov laughed wildly, kicking dirt onto our faces. Dirt covered my nose. I opened my mouth to breathe and choked on soil.” Even though they were not Nazi’s, The NKVD were just as evil. They could have killed someone by burying them alive. Even though he didn’t intend to kill them, he scared them. The NKVD were brutal, and like the Nazi’s in many ways. When they wanted something done, they would get it done. In this case, they wanted the people to sign the documents, so they buried them alive to make them scared and do so. But Lina, her mother, and many of the other people were persistent to make sure they did not sign the documents. Although the book was made up, I’m sure this happened to some people. As the people stand in line to go to the bathhouse Lina and all the other woman are forced to undress in front of male guards. As Lina finishes to undress, she says, “The guard grabbed my arms and threw them down to my sides. He looked me up and down and grinned. He reached out and groped my breast. I felt his ragged fingernails scratch my skin.” This to me, might be one of the most disturbing parts in the book. It’s just crazy how a grown man would sexually assault a fifteen year old girl. It is absolutely frightening. The NKVD though they had so much power so they thought it was ok to assault this teenager, who was completely helpless. The NKVD officers were basically Nazi’s but they just believed in different things. They treated their prisoners the same. There was also sexual assault going on during the Holocaust. And they both thought of themselves so highly and they thought they could do anything they wanted. The NKVD put a knife to a boy, and demanded that his mother had to sleep with the officers. And this was not only back then. People are sexually assaulted nowadays too. It’s terrible that sick men, believe they could do anything they want. Lina lived and suffered in terrible conditions, from being assaulted to being buried alive.

            Even though Wiesel wasn’t buried alive, and Lina wasn’t whipped, the two protagonists went through horrendous times. And the worst part is, it’s still happening today. Many kids, teens, and people in general are abused and sexually harassed. It’s been going on for a long time, and it was clearly shown during the Holocaust and deportation of Lithuanians and Estonians. Yes our society is improving, but there are still sick people who whip, and hurt their kids. And there are many people in this world who have been sexually assaulted as well. Prisoners being held by countries and groups such as the Taliban, are being tortured too. The conditions that Lina and Wiesel went through, were appalling, but some people have it worse. So we should be thankful, that we were not deported from our countries, or placed in concentration camps. But that we live an amazing life. And whenever you say, “I hate my life,” just think about what people like Elie Wiesel who at a teenager, was tortured, starved, and lost his entire family.

China's Cram Schools

           

                                                       Matthew Breitman 711

          Tests all over the world, are the same, they both assess students, but some are much more extreme than others. In an article titled “China’s Crammed Schools”, the author, Brook Larmer explores the Gaokao, a Chinese test that decides your future. Students are put under massive pressure, and that makes some commit suicide. Kids study for years, and some make it and some don’t. The test can decide whether you become a wealthy business man or a farmer.  The SAT’s, ACT’s, and other American standardized tests are similar but very different to the Gaokao.

            The Gaokao test is incredibly hard, puts kids and teachers under tremendous pressure, and decides the students’ lives. On page 14, Larmer states, “The boys knew that manual labor would be their fate too, if they failed to do well on the Gaokao.” This one test determined their life, it made the decision whether a student will work in a factory or become a stockbroker. The stakes were so high. If you didn't sleep enough that day and you tanked the test, there may not be another chance. For someone like Cao Yingsheng, his family could not afford another year of Maotanchang, so he was forced to go into manual labor. It’s very unfair how much is riding on this one single test. Is ruins kids’ lives. All they do is study, so sure they’ll be smart, but they have no social life. On page 15, the author wrote, “their job security bonuses depend on raising their students’ test scores.” I honestly believe that it’s completely unfair that teachers’ bonuses depend on their students’ scores. What if they teach a class with kids with disabilities? Or immigrants that can’t write in English. You can’t base it all on a single test because some kids have panic attacks when they are about to take a test. In order to give teacher a bonus, administrators should check on the teachers at school while they are teaching. The Gaokao tests put too much pressure on kids and teachers, and decide where you’re going to end up

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            The SAT, ACT, and other American specialized tests aren’t worth as much as the Gaokao, and have a big impact on teachers. On page number thirteen, Larmer wrote, “the gaokao is like the SAT or ACT, but it’s more than twice as long and the stakes are much higher”. This shows how even though the SAT and ACT are important, the Gaokao is twice as important. It’s stricter, longer, and if you don’t take it, you have no chance at having a good job. In America, if you don’t take the SAT’s and don’t go to college, you still have a shot. Think about Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and the boy who created Tumbler, they all dropped out. But look at where they are/were. Bill Gates is one of the top three richest men in the world. Also, I believe that if the Gaokao is worth so much more than the SAT’s, then China has higher expectations. If they have higher expectations on test, they might do so on many things in life. One thing similar though, is the way the Gaokao, and specialized tests treat teachers. The teacher’s bonuses depend on their students test scores, in China. In America, it’s actually stricter. The New York state tests now says if the teacher will be fired or not. If some of the kids grades drop, those teachers will most likely be fired. I think this is completely unfair, teachers should be fired if they are not teaching a class well, not if one of their student’s grade drop. Therefore, American specialized tests have lower stakes, compared to the Gaokao, but it has a big impact on teachers.

            In conclusion, both the Gaokao and American specialized tests compare and contrast in many ways. Although, the Gaokao is a bit crazy. The way people stress those kids is unbelievable. In the United States, kids still have a chance to succeed if they do badly on their SAT’s. But in China, your only choice is to retake them. So I think that we should be lucky, because we live in America. Where sure, we are under pressure. But not under the same amount of pressure the Chinese kids are under.