Analysis Of Salt To The Sea By Ruta Sepetys

This book is a great novel with many underlying messages that you can really think about and analyse, but what are some messages? There are many themes in this novel but one of them that is very present is the importance of family.

One of the ways this theme is shown throughout the novel is with characterization. This novel shows how many families were affected and hurt because of this war. For example, when refugees were trying to board the ships many of the family members who were sick or had disabilities were not allowed onto the ships.

“But when will I see them?” sobbed a young girl in the corridor.

“Don’t cry, sweetheart,” said an old woman. “You were lucky to be the one chosen in your family. Your mother will come for you in a couple years. You’ll see, the time will go quickly.”

The crying girl looked to be ten or eleven. How would she make it on her own?”, how could any of them make it on their own.? This book really shows how devastating getting split from your family and close ones is like. From the very beginning of the book, it talks about the past families of the protagonists, talking about connections between Emilia and the Kleist family or Alfred and Hannelore. Furthermore, the book talks about how most of these connections have been severed and if the characters can overcome it and make new families. It talks about the new connection the characters can make with each other such as the shoe poet and little boy or how the little boy sometimes refers to Florian as “unkel” and how losing any of them is as devastating as a family member would be. When they lost the shoe poet at the end of the book it was sad for everyone as he was a father figure for them, a very positive person in their group that was just lost.

“Opi!” sobbed the wandering boy. “No, please, Opi.”

Poet.

Our blessed shoe poet. Our Opi.

Our one light in the darkness.

He was gone.

The characterization in the novel shows how families got split during the war and how losing a close one is really a terrible thing.

In the end, I think that the theme of family is very present during the novel and that it is expressed through different messages during the book. Other thatn this, there are still many different questions to ask yourself about this book, one question is: What made the author write about so many different people with different backgrounds and families? Why couldn’t the author have made just 1 group of people that are very close like a lot of other books? This novel has a lot of hidden messages hidden in the perspective and other things that you can look for and try to interpret.