Salt to the Sea

What is the significance of the motif of gunfire (and other related sounds of warfare) that appears in the very first pages of the novel and weaves its way throughout the story? Find passages where sound is used to add meaning to the narrative, and explain what effect it has on the plot and characters.

The narrative includes many different rites of passage. Among these are leaving home, becoming an orphan, transitioning into adulthood, giving birth, dying, and the hero’s journey. Choose three rites of passage the characters make and explain how these life-cycle transitions transform the characters and affect their community.

Explore the ways the theme of reinventing family shows up in the novel. What effect does the war have on families and children? How does the diverse group of refugees form a special kind of family? Why is it important that this family is created in the context of the war? What are the implications of this new family on future generations?

Write an essay in which you analyze Eva’s unique character. What is the significance of her size and bold personality? What understanding of history and major themes does Eva provide?

There are four major and four minor characters. Write an essay in which you explain why the minor characters are essential to the narrative and the development of the main characters and major themes in the novel.

Sepetys begins the novel with a powerful epigraph that sets the tone for the book: “We the survivors are not the true witnesses. The true witnesses, those in possession of the unspeakable truth, are the drowned, the dead, and the disappeared.” Write an essay in which you argue that the deceased are the true witnesses of the war. Focus on the perspectives of Ingrid, Emilia, Alfred, the dead girl on the road, the aristocratic family found murdered in their beds, and the thousands who died when the Gustloff sank. How do the dead tell their story?

Write an essay explaining how human kindness plays out both in the victims and perpetrators of the war. Assuming that the capacity for kindness exists in all humans, consider why and how some characters (and historical figures in the novel) have lost connection with their own humanity and what impact this has on them and the people around them. Alternatively, argue that the capacity for human kindness does not exist in everyone, and use evidence from the text to prove this.

Why does Sepetys choose to tell the story through four first-person narratives? How is this the most effective way to tell the story? What would be lost and or gained if there were a single first-person narrator?