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
Mahmoud is choking on the tear gas, his eyes streaming tears. He is pulled off the ground, his hands are tied with plastic, and he is lifted into a truck. When he is able to open his eyes again, he sees several other refugees in the truck, including Youssef. They are brought to an immigrant detention center. Mahmoud, Youssef, and the other refugees protest that they’re not criminals and that they simply need help. The guards ignore them, leaving them in holding cells. Hours pass without food or water, and Mahmoud and Youssef don’t know where Waleed and Fatima have ended up.
Mahmoud and his family’s processing through the immigrant detention center illuminates yet another way in which refugees are treated with injustice. Despite the fact that they have not committed a crime, and their only desire is to travel through the country to get to Germany, they are treated as though they are criminals and violently attacked and arrested.
Themes
When a soldier returns to process them, Youssef asks why they don’t take them to Austria, explaining that the refugees don’t want to stay in Hungary anyway. The soldier beats Youssef, yelling in Arabic that they don’t want their “filth” in Hungary either, calling them “parasites.” Mahmoud cries out, trying to stop the guards by telling them they’ll agree to be processed.
Just as Josef and the other Jewish passengers on the St. Louis are dehumanized by the Nazis, the Hungarian soldiers also dehumanize the Syrian refugees in order to justify their poor treatment.
Themes
When Mahmoud and Youssef line up, they pass another cell for women and children and find Fatima and Waleed—but the family is unable to be processed together. When they are processed, a man in uniform asks if they want to claim asylum in Hungary. Youssef says he would never stay in a country that beats and locks up refugees. He asks again why they don’t allow them to go to Austria. The policeman shrugs, saying he’s “just doing his job.”
The Hungarian officer echoes the words that Mariano Padron says to Josef when he asks about his father. With this repetition, Gratz argues that indifference can be just as harmful to the refugees as outright cruelty; instead, they need empathetic treatment, respect, and aid in establishing their new lives.
Themes
Youssef again emphasizes that he would never want to live in Hungary. The policeman then says that they will be sent back to Serbia. When Youssef and Mahmoud return to their cell and pass Fatima again, she cries out to them. But they don’t acknowledge her, keeping their eyes on the ground to avoid being beaten again.
Mahmoud once again retreats into being invisible, because he sees how speaking up only invites trouble. However, the family’s previous experiences have shown that sometimes being open and trusting people is necessary in order to receive help, even if it also means potentially inviting harm.
Themes
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