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Chapter 20
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Go, Went, Gone, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Refugee Crisis and Bureaucracy
Compassion and Human Connection
Racism and Prejudice
The Power and Limitations of Language
Summary
Analysis
Richard sets aside all of Sunday to study the “agreement” signed between the Berlin Senate and the African refugees about “reclaim[ing] Oranienplatz for the use of all Berliners.” He’s shocked, though, to find that the document is less than a page long—even the contracts his phone company sends him are longer. Essentially the agreement says that the “camping” the refugees have been doing there isn’t legally permissible and that they must dismantle their tents immediately. In the meantime, deportations will be paused while the Senate goes over pending cases. Richard considers how, given the refugees’ inability to afford lawyers and their lacking German, “hope” is all they have to go on.
The brevity of the Berlin Senate’s “agreement” about usage of Oranienplatz signals their disregard for the refugees as people. It shows how little thought they’ve put into the decision and what function the camp at Oranienplatz served for the refugees on a personal level and a political level. Oranienplatz was a central meeting place for refugees to connect with others in similar situations, who came from similar cultural backgrounds. And its central location in Berlin lent visibility (and therefore political momentum) to the refugee crisis. The Berlin Senate’s brief, straightforward response comes as a slap in the face, then, signaling—without quite saying so directly—the government’s disregard for the refugees and their demands.
Active
Themes
