Invisibility and the Refugee Experience Theme Analysis

One of the aspects of being a refugee that is particularly difficult for Mahmoud is feeling invisible. Mahmoud is the only one of the three protagonists whose journey frequently causes him to interact with people native to the countries through which he is traveling. As he moves from Syria to Germany, he grapples with the idea of whether it is better to be seen, or better to blend in with the crowd and make as little trouble as possible. It is a painful paradox, as being invisible deprives him of being acknowledged as a person, but sometimes visibility leads him to be abused or further oppressed. Yet Mahmoud ultimately comes to the conclusion, and Gratz argues through his story, that it is important to be seen and acknowledged as a refugee so that others can offer their aid.

At the beginning of the book, Mahmoud illustrates some of the benefits of being invisible and blending into the background, and the negative aspects of being noticed, yet Gratz still hints at why doing so can be upsetting for Mahmoud. Mahmoud describes how invisibility, for him, is a form of protection—as he puts it, being invisible is “how he survives.” Mahmoud describes how “getting noticed by the Syrian army or the rebels fighting them [is] just inviting trouble.” He understands that just to be noticed represents an invitation of danger, and so remaining invisible sometimes feels safer. Mahmoud keeps this lesson in mind when he and his family are heading to Turkey. He tries to blend in with the other refugees walking with them, and when the Turkish officials confront them, he worries that if they notice something different about him, they might “pull him and his family out of line.” Mahmoud stares straight ahead, trying to make his face as blank as possible. Yet even though this is something that Mahmoud does in order to survive, Gratz hints at the pain of having to constantly render oneself invisible. Mahmoud also realizes that often, refugees are only acknowledged or seen in a negative light. When they are traveling from the Greek island of Lesbos to Athens, Mahmoud and the other Muslim refugees do one of their daily prayers on the deck of the ship. The tourists who are also on the deck start to murmur about them in disgust. Mahmoud and Gratz highlight the injustice of this assessment of them: “They only see us when we do something they don’t want us to do,” Mahmoud realizes. Being invisible might be safer, but it is also unfair to expect refugees to simply disappear because it makes other people more comfortable not to have to think about them.

Over the course of his journey, Mahmoud begins to recognize how being invisible may be more of a harm than a help for refugees, and that the benefit of being visible is that it allows for other people to help them. When Mahmoud and his mother are stranded in the water after their boat capsizes between Turkey and Greece, he feels so invisible that he thinks that if he were to drown no one would know that he is gone. Thus, Gratz emphasizes that being invisible can offer some protection, but it also can make a person even more vulnerable because no one is able to notice and save him. Mahmoud recognizes the power of visibility on the ship to Greece. He has a revelation that “If no one saw them, no one could help them. And maybe the world needed to see what was really happening here.” Visibility thus comes with an increased awareness, and hopefully might spark empathy in those who might be willing to help them. Toward the end of Mahmoud’s journey, he and his family land in a detention center in Hungary. Mahmoud understands that they haven’t done anything wrong, but are still being treated like criminals. He wants to show the injustice of this; he no longer wants to fade into the background. Mahmoud has another realization that, “If you stayed invisible here, did everything you were supposed to and never made waves, you would disappear from the eyes and minds of all the good people out there who could help you get your life back.” With this revelation, Mahmoud simply decides to walk out the door of the detention center. No one stops him, and it is this action that allows him and the other refugees to go free. They then walk to Austria together, with enough people that Austrians take notice and come to the border to greet them with supplies and aid. Making waves and being visible, then, not only allows Mahmoud to help the other refugees, but also enables generous people to help them.

Mahmoud weighs the various advantages and disadvantages of being visible and invisible, but his conclusion delivers Gratz’s message quite clearly: visibility can be a powerful tool. This is also an idea that drove Gratz to write the book in the first place—it allows readers to recognize the humanity and bravery of all of the novel’s characters, but particularly of the Syrian refugees, many of whom still need aid outside the confines of the novel. By shedding light the story of these refugees and by referencing various organizations that aid Syrian refugees, Gratz also provides an avenue for children like Mahmoud to be visible to readers, so that readers might provide the aid that these children need.