84 pages • 2 hours read
Ruta SepetysA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Reflect on the title of the novel—I Must Betray You—and perform a deep analysis on why Sepetys chose to call Cristian’s and his family’s story by this name. As you reflect, consider the following questions:
Teaching Suggestion: On a surface level, the title is written in the same first-person perspective as the rest of the novel. However, the “I” could be any of the main characters in the book, given that all of them, from Cristian to Starfish, are forced to participate in duplicitous behavior, given the nature of the Romanian communist regime. The “must” in the title emphasizes how little choice Cristian and the rest of the main characters had in the novel; due to the life-or-death circumstances, the characters had no choice but to, at times, betray those closest to each other.
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