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Chapter 30
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Bone Sparrow, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Dehumanization, Invisibility, and Refugee Camps
Childhood
Family and Friendship
Storytelling, Escapism, and Hope
Summary
Analysis
Eli left his old country with his little brother. They traveled with 65 other people in a truck, and there wasn’t enough air for everyone. When the doors opened, Eli was the only one alive. Eli always told Subhi that his little brother looked like he was sleeping, with his bottom in the air and his knees tucked under. Except he was blue and had blood coming from his mouth. Eli told Subhi that when he saw his little brother, he was glad their mum had already been killed so she wouldn’t have to think of her dead baby. Subhi always thought that since Eli was the only one who survived the truck, he had “something important to do.”
Eli’s appalling story is a reminder that refugees leave their home countries because they fear for their lives and their safety—Eli’s mum died before she could even escape. And Eli’s brother and dozens of others died along the way, making it clear that the journey itself is often dangerous. It thus becomes even more heartbreaking that Eli ended up in a refugee camp, murdered by one of the guards—he was essentially imprisoned in the place he hoped to find peace and freedom, and he was murdered by someone who was ostensibly supposed to care for him.
Themes
