Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Refugee, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trauma and Coming of Age
Injustice and Cruelty vs. Empathy and Social Responsibility
Hope vs. Despair
Family, Displacement, and Culture
Invisibility and the Refugee Experience
Summary
Analysis
The ships sirens start to blow. One of the Cuban policemen (Mariano Padron) dives into the water and swims out to Aaron. A woman screams as she notices two shark fins in the water. Aaron sinks beneath the waves, but the police officer grabs hold of him and swims back with him, even as Aaron shrieks to let him die. Meanwhile, boats are dispatched from shore to retrieve them.
Aaron’s suicide attempt again represents this deep descent into despair, from which he does not return. The irony of this episode is that he is the only one of his family who is then able to go on to a life in Cuba, but the fact that he has become so steeped in paranoia and despair hints at the fact that he will never fully be able to get his life back.
Themes
Padron is able to get Aaron back to one of the small boats, where two other officers restrain him. The boat then speeds back to the shore. Josef is stunned. His father is gone, his mother is unconscious, and his little sister is alone. Josef worries that now that his father has “gone mad,” they will never let him and his family into Cuba.
Aaron’s despair also has ramifications on Josef and the rest of his family, as Josef now has to act as the adult not only for his sister but also for his mother, and try to keep their hopes alive that they, too, can forge a new life in Cuba.
Themes
