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121. Florian
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
Joana is furious with Florian. She considers how she is Volkdeutsche, of German ancestry, and wonders how much she owes to Germany, and whether she should turn him in. Alfred comes to fetch Joana once again, and they navigate the ship together. Although only built for fourteen hundred, the ship holds over eight thousand people. Joana is grateful to be in the relatively calm maternity ward, instead of fighting for space in a hallway or stairwell. Alfred brings Joana to the secret chimney where Florian is hiding. Joana asks for a moment alone with Florian.
Joana has often expressed love for her native Lithuania, but rarely for her adopted home of Germany. Instead, she has only expressed occasional gratitude at being able to repatriate. Based on her past expressions of national pride, her desire to turn in Florian seems to come as much from anger at his betrayal as it does a sense of duty to her adopted nation.
Themes
