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Pacing into the siege, the reader notices the arrival of winter

and with it coming desperate situations and survival turning

harder every day. Hunger and cold are taking their toll on the

family and Kolya need for food and warmth turns unbearable.

At this stage the reader is invited to revisit episodes of Annaand Vera, of the time where her mother was alive. Vera always

had a strong belief in Anna and her potential and Anna is now

determined to keeping the family alive and justifying her

mothers faith. Despite of the hardship along the way, favours

and judgement from others, Anna wont back down until this waris over because family, to her, is everything. Further into the

chapter the readers witness increasing fears in the mind of the

Leningraders about being spied on, being watched.

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Anna turns to start helping Zina despite of the clashes between her

and Fedya and defends her father and demonstrates her love for the

country by calling it her motherland. Progressing into the story, the

main theme reveals itself, survival. How the only people important in

the war is you, how keeping yourself alive is all that counts.

Friendships forgotten and neighbours ignored as when it comes to

war time, were all on our own. Due to an accident at the apartment,

Andreis house catches fire and is forced to stay with Anna. Her easy

acceptance shows the reader her housing and caring nature towards

others despite the rough and selfish times that lie ahead. Reaching

the end of the chapter, the reader learns the simple joy in the abilityto fall asleep and escape from the surroundings, to feel no pain. To

dream in a place where things appear brighter. Where one is not

seized in an empty and devastated Leningrad.

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Chapter 20 of siege starts of with the description of how the

scarcity of food has made survival for the residents of

Leningrad an impossible task. The author adds descriptions of

people beginning their days hours before its light. Feeling tired

and sick has also been highlighted during the first few pagesof this chapter. As the readers pace into the chapter, they come

to notice that apart from hunger, problems like no electricity

and a lack of water supply are also evident and destructive.

Anna as part of her daily routine is standing in the queue for

collecting her ration. During her wait she meets an old womenwho despite her weak physical condition, disagrees to take rest

in fear of losing her spot in the queue demonstrating her strong

live to stay alive.

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The trucks also seem to have arrived late, caused by drastic

decline in their number. The conditions in Leningrad during this

time of the year seem to be very difficult. Towards the end of

the chapter Dunmore talks about how Anna prepares herself for

her daily walk to the bakery, indicating how watchful and

careful one has to be when given the responsibility of getting

their daily rations. Lastly it can be observed that throughout this

chapter descriptions of the importance and value of ration

cards are present and they have also been referred to as goldas without them one can survive a day but not throughout the

war.