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Josef: Vornay, France – 1940, 1 year, 1 month, 10 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
The boat is close to the shore as Teresa pushes frantically, trying to bring the baby into the world while Señora Castillo talks her through it. The Coast Guard picks up Lito and then turns back toward them. Amara dives into the water to swim the rest of the way, but Isabel, Geraldo, and Señor Castillo row as hard as they can. Teresa tries to tell Geraldo to go without her and take Isabel, but they refuse to leave her side. Geraldo tells her that they should name the baby Mariano, after Lito.
In this final race to the shore, Isabel continues to show her maturity in not abandoning her mother. She puts her family above all else, and refuses to give up hope that she, Geraldo, and Teresa can be together in America. It is only her perseverance in rowing and then pulling the ship to shore that makes this possible.
Themes
The Coast Guard gets closer and closer. Señor Castillo grabs Isabel and pulls her into the water. Together, they swim and pull the boat toward the shore. The water is now only at Isabel’s waist. Isabel then looks up and sees Teresa and Geraldo with the newborn baby, who is crying. She knows instantly that she will do anything to protect him. Geraldo passes the baby to Isabel so that she can take him to shore, while Geraldo helps Teresa out of the boat.
The receding water serves as a symbolic reversal of the families’ journey up to this point. Whereas the encroaching water in their boat represented the danger and dread of their trip, as they now approach to the shore, they become more and more hopeful in the fact that they can make it to a new world and a new life in the United States.
Themes
Isabel holds the baby high to keep him out of the water and staggers onto U.S. soil. She turns and sees that Teresa and Geraldo have also made it to the shallow water, and the Coast Guard boat can no longer follow them. It starts to turn back into the sea. As Isabel and the others help each other onto the beach, Señor Castillo kisses the ground. Suddenly, people on the beach start to run toward them to help them. A young woman asks Isabel in Spanish if they are from Cuba. Isabel says yes, she’s from Cuba, but her little brother is an American—and soon she will be, too.
Like Josef with Ruthie and Mahmoud with Waleed, Isabel takes on the ultimate responsibility in caring for her younger sibling. This motion echoes Mahmoud in particular, who lifted Hana onto a boat in order to allow her to reach safety. Isabel shows her maturity in taking on the same task: that of guarding her brother and ensuring he can live. Additionally, Isabel’s statement that she will soon be American shows that she believes that she will be renouncing her Cuban culture by becoming American.
Themes
