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118. Joana
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Salt to the Sea, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Agency, Willpower, and Fate
Storytelling and Fantasy
Memory and Survival
Family and Community vs. Selfishness
Summary
Analysis
Emilia eavesdrops on Joana’s conversation with the blonde Nazi. This is the first time has heard Florian’s name. She’s thrilled to learn his name is Florian, like the Patron Saint of Poland.
Emilia always thought of Florian as her protecting knight, and so her fantasy is only reinforced when she learns his name is that of a Polish protector.
Themes
Emilia is taken back to living on the farm with the Kleists. She remembers Mrs. Kleist complaining about how much it cost to take care of Emilia over the past four years, and she remembers saying her father would return and pay the Kleists back, only to be told by Mrs. Kleist that her father was dead already.
Emilia embraced the Kleist family, but the family never fully embraced her—least of all Mrs. Kleist, who believed that Emilia, a Polish person, was racially inferior. This rejection was even more devastating for Emilia when she learned that the last member of her biological family had died.
Themes
Back in the present, the Poet and Klaus have arrived in the maternity ward and want to see the baby. The Poet finds it beautiful that the baby “has beaten this war,” like “like [spitting] in the eye of death.”
The Poet and Klaus have welcomed Emilia into their chosen family and have accepted her baby as well.
Themes
