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Josef: On the Atlantic Ocean – 1939, 8 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 lights of Havana fade behind Isabel. Señor Castillo shows Isabel that at the bottom of the boat is a billboard with Castro’s face on it. Geraldo and the other adults joke about Castro and the failures of the Cuban Revolution. Isabel asks how long it might be until they get to Florida, and Señor Castillo says that they are likely to get there by tomorrow night.
This is the first introduction of the word “tomorrow” as a signifier of hope in the novel. It’s unclear at this whether the Fernandezes and Castillos really will make it to Florida in that time, given the precariousness of their homemade boat and the fact that it was shot on their way out of Cuba. Despite this uncertainty, the word “tomorrow” allows the families to distract themselves from the struggles of the current day, and to try to keep their hopes up as they push forward on their journey.
Themes
Teresa asks everyone what they think the U.S. will be like. While others mention things like food, clothes, sports, movies, and travel, all Isabel wants is “a place where she and her family c[an] be together, and happy.” Geraldo says that he’s looking forward to not being thrown in jail for criticizing the government.
Lito asks Isabel to play a song for them. Isabel explains that she had to trade her trumpet for the gasoline. Lito is shocked—the trumpet was “everything” to Isabel. Isabel thinks to herself that it wasn’t as important as her family. Lito instead begins singing a salsa song, and everyone joins in. Teresa starts counting clave, but Isabel still can’t quite hear the rhythm. Then, suddenly, the music stops—the boat’s motor has died.
Isabel again reinforces the fact that her family is more important to her than retaining her culture—though Gratz hints again at her insecurity in the fact that she can’t count clave. Still, Gratz will ultimately argue that family is what actually enables Isabel to remain connected to her culture.
Themes
