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Josef: Train to Hamburg – 1939, 1 day
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Refugee, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trauma and Coming of Age
Injustice and Cruelty vs. Empathy and Social Responsibility
Hope vs. Despair
Family, Displacement, and Culture
Invisibility and the Refugee Experience
Summary
Analysis
Isabel, Geraldo, and Lito return to their home following the riots. Isabel’s mother, Teresa, is pregnant and due to deliver in a week’s time, and so Isabel retrieves the iodine for her mother to help with Geraldo’s welts. Lito explains what happened during the riots, and Geraldo insists that he has to leave Cuba.
Because of Isabel’s mother’s pregnancy, Isabel frequently takes on the role of adult for this reason, in addition to the tense political climate and violence in Cuba that forces her to grow up.
Themes
At this time, it is very difficult to flee Cuba due to a new American policy that the Cubans call “Wet Foot, Dry Foot.” If Cuban refugees are caught at sea, they are sent to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay and could either stay in the refugee camp or return to Cuba. If they are able to make it across the Straits of Florida and set foot on land, they are allowed to remain in the U.S.
In both Josef’s story and Isabel’s, Gratz demonstrates a lack of social responsibility on the part of countries who are taking in refugees, including the United States. Josef’s story shows how America is instating arbitrary quotas on the number of Jews it takes in each year, and here, Isabel’s situation shows how America’s policies put arbitrary restrictions in place so that the country can send back refugees caught in the water, despite the fact that they need refuge as much as the ones caught on land.
Themes
Lito tells Geraldo that he should just lie low for a while because of the danger of trying to leave, but Geraldo insists that things aren’t going to get better in Cuba. At that moment, Castro appears on their TV in the living room. He criticizes the riots breaking out in Havana, and announces a new policy: anyone who wishes to leave Cuba may do so legally. Isabel realizes that with this news, Geraldo will want to leave immediately. Lito tells Geraldo that he can’t just leave—he has a wife, daughter, and a son on the way to think about.
Rather than submitting to the despair and destitution that the country has fallen into, and putting himself in danger of returning to jail due to the political oppression, Geraldo chooses to maintain what optimism he can and insist on finding a better life. This becomes even more crucial to him after Castro legalizes Cubans’ ability to flee the country—now is the family’s chance.
Themes
Geraldo and Lito start to fight until Isabel proposes that the whole family travel to the U.S. Lito is surprised, and insists that Teresa can’t go while she’s pregnant. Isabel argues that there’s no food for the baby in Cuba, and no money with which to buy it. They are all quiet, until Geraldo realizes that they don’t even have a boat. Isabel runs out, determined to fix this problem.
Even though fleeing the country would mean leaving behind the only home and the only culture Isabel has ever known, she recognizes that it is more important to keep her family together than to remain in Cuba.
Themes
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Isabel runs next door to Iván and Señor Castillo. She sees the boat that they have been building out of metal billboards and oil drums, which is big enough for the four Castillos and four extra people. Isabel insists that they have to take the Fernandezes in their boat as well. Señor Castillo protests, saying that they don’t even have gasoline, so they won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
Isabel once again proves herself to have the maturity and ingenuity more typical of adults. It is she who formulates the plan for all of them to leave Cuba, and it is she who finds the solution that will allow the Fernandezes and the Castillos to do so.
Themes
Isabel runs home and grabs her trumpet. She heads over to the beach, where a fisherman lives. Isabel asks him for gasoline, telling him that she is willing to trade her trumpet for it. The fisherman agrees, giving her two large plastic jugs of gasoline—enough to get them to Miami and back. Isabel is thrilled.
Isabel’s willingness to give up her culture for the opportunity of a new life is symbolized in this exchange. Isabel’s trumpet represents her cultural connection to Cuba through music, and she is readily trading it for the chance to keep her family together and flee the country.
Themes
