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Josef: On the Atlantic Ocean – 1939, 6 days
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, Iván, Señor Castillo, Señora Castillo, Geraldo, and Lito are carrying the boat to the beach, packed with water, food, and medicine. Teresa walks alongside them, almost nine months pregnant. When they arrive at the beach, they see many other boats preparing to leave. Isabel also notices a small group of police on the beach, though they are only standing and watching. Isabel wades into the ocean with the rest of her family and they start to climb into the boat.
Gratz highlights the hopelessness that people are feeling country-wide in Cuba by demonstrating the sheer number of boats that are trying to leave. To each of these families, the boats represent their hope for a better life in the United States.
Themes
When Isabel turns to look at the beach once more, she sees two policemen running toward them. Geraldo panics and tells them to start the engine as Isabel is lifted into the boat. But then, Iván and Señora Castillo help lift the two policemen into the boat, and Isabel realizes that it is Luis Castillo and his girlfriend, Amara.
The Castillos, too, understand the importance of keeping their family together. Even though they invite trouble by having Luis and Amara desert the police force, they recognize that it would be immoral and heartbreaking to leave them behind.
Themes
Suddenly, gunshots ring out and hit the side of their boat. Isabel realizes that the other policemen are shooting at them because Luis and Amara are deserting the force. Señor Castillo starts the motor and the boat lurches forward and away from the shore. As they pull away, Geraldo yells at Señor Castillo for letting Luis and Amara come, saying that they’re putting everyone in danger. They begin to argue, until Isabel notices water pouring in from the gunshot hole in the side of the boat.
The gunshots will have serious ramifications for the rest of Isabel’s story as water continues to fill the boat. The tension between the water rising and the boat trying to carry on mirrors the despair that Isabel and her family will feel over various points of their journey, but at this point they must still hold out hope that the boat can take them to a new life.
Themes
