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
Policemen are guarding the border from Greece to Macedonia, and Mahmoud once again notices how dirty he feels. Youssef uses his phone to determine that they could make it across the border through a nearby forest. After two hours of walking, the family emerges from the woods across the Macedonian border. They try to find a hotel, but then a cab comes up next to them and asks if they are going to Serbia, offering to drive them all the way there. Though the family is exhausted, they agree, and two hours later they cross into Serbia.
Once again, Gratz emphasizes how Mahmoud is forced to act essentially as an adult. He and his family are forced to travel essentially nonstop for several days without getting to rest, but Mahmoud recognizes that he can’t complain because there is no alternative for them.
Themes
Mahmoud and his family stop at a train station only long enough to recharge their phones. Youssef finds a bus for them to take into Belgrade, and once there, they still aren’t able to stop moving. They hear that the police are raiding hotels for illegal refugees, so Youssef finds another taxi driver who agrees to take them to the Hungarian border. Mahmoud falls asleep as soon as he closes his eyes in the car, but when he wakes up a short time later, he sees that the taxi driver is pointing a pistol at them from the front seat.
It is also worth noting that in each of these countries, the police and other law enforcement officials continue to make it difficult for refugees to enter the country, despite the fact that the refugees have no intention of staying in those countries long term. Rather, they are only trying to pass through and continue on to Germany, which is welcoming the refugees. Gratz therefore implies that the officials should be more understanding of the refugees situation and allow them to pass through without incident, as their only crime is in trying to make new lives for themselves.
Themes
