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
Three days later, the situation has worsened on the St. Louis. The Cuban police are still telling the passengers that they will be able to disembark “mañana.” Meanwhile, two other boats have been allowed to dock and let off their refugees into Havana. Josef is frustrated, wondering why these others have been let off while the St. Louis hasn’t been allowed to dock.
Similar to Mahmoud, the constant repetition of “tomorrow” starts to create feelings of despair and anxiety for the Josef and the other passengers as they lose hope that they will ever be allowed into Havana. Whether the Cuban police know what is happening or not, they clearly make no effort to try to comfort the passengers or give them more information about what is happening.
Themes
Tension mounts between the passengers and the crew, and Schiendick and the other Nazis start allowing the firemen on board the ship to patrol the decks and harass the Jewish passengers. One of these firemen grabs Josef and brings him to Schiendick. Schiendick says that Josef is to come with them because his parents’ cabin must be searched.
Schiendick and the firemen on board only add to the lack of empathy that the Cuban police are showing. They start to more freely harass and dehumanize the Jewish passengers because they believe Jewish people are inherently inferior to them.
Themes
Josef has no choice but to bring Schiendick to his family’s cabin, where Aaron is napping and Rachel is reading. Schiendick and two firemen ransack the room, smashing the mirror and knocking the lamps off the basin. They throw the Landaus’ clothes all over the cabin and tear the head off of Ruthie’s stuffed bunny. They tear pages out of the book in Rachel’s hands.
Schiendick and the firemen then take their dehumanization and cruelty even further. Their fabricated search is simply an excuse to enact harm and instill fear among people who are already vulnerable, simply because they can and because they do not recognize Landaus’ humanity.
Themes
Josef, Aaron, and Rachel huddle in the corner. When there is nothing left to destroy, Schiendick spits at Aaron, and Josef understands that this is payback for what Aaron said at the funeral. Schiendick and the firemen leave. Aaron starts to cry, then reminds Josef that he said if Aaron stood still, the Nazis wouldn’t come for him. Aaron sobs, accusing Josef of breaking his promise. Josef feels as though his father has slapped him. He is horrified by what he has done.
While Josef has taken on the burden of responsibility in terms of caring for his father, this also means dealing with the burden of responsibility when the hardships continue. Though Josef had good reason to lie to his father to get him to calm down during the inspecting, he must now face the repercussions of breaking the promise to keep his father safe as well. These are responsibilities that no 13-year-old should have to bear, and yet the trauma that Aaron has faced means that Josef must assume these burdens.
Themes
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