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26. 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
Florian takes a break from walking. He wonders if he should have stayed with Joana and her group of refugees. Florian keeps vacillating between wishing Emilia would leave him alone, and being reminded of his sister and feeling too guilty to abandon her. He begins to eat some sausage but reconsiders and gives Emilia half.
Florian wonders if he should have stayed with the refugees not because he liked them, but because he selfishly wonders if he would have been safer or faster. He’s shaken out of his selfishness by Emilia, who reminds him of his sister, and forces him to be more empathetic.
Themes
Emilia asks Florian “Heil Hitler?” but he doesn’t respond. He decides he will abandon her that night.
Emilia remembers Florian’s negative reaction to Polish, and so wonders if he is a Nazi sympathizer, and whether she can win favor with him by appealing to any fascist tendencies. She is unsuccessful, however, as Florian disapproves of the Nazis.
Themes
