Mila’s hatred for Papa Stalin
Mila is the daughter of communist parents, and she grows up loving Papa Stalin, the supreme leader of the Soviet Union. Communist families raise their children in strict adherence to communist ideologies. Ironically, Mila discovers that Papa Stalin is evil because he oppresses people. As a result, Mila turns her love for Papa Stalin into hatred, something she never saw forthcoming.
Helen’s action to steal her father’s gold
Helen is a good girl, and her parents value her for obedience and self-respect. Ironically, Helen does the contrary when she steals her father's gold to send it to her starving cousins. The readers expect Helen to consult her father and ask for assistance to help her cousins instead of stealing the gold from her father.
The paradox of leadership
Leadership is about serving the people, and the role of leaders is to protect the lives of the people they lead. Paradoxically, Papa Stalin is a leader who does the contrary because he serves his self-interest. Instead of protecting lives, Stalin engineered a famine that killed millions of innocent people in Ukraine. Stalin aims to use the famine to crumble the freedom movement that asks for independence.
