Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Tell Me How It Ends, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Migration and Personal Sacrifice
Language and Storytelling
International Relations and Political Responsibility
Gang Life vs. Community Engagement
Summary
Analysis
Luiselli has started teaching a Spanish conversation class at Hofstra University, which is in Hempstead, Long Island. Since the main objective of the course is simply to give students a chance to speak Spanish, Luiselli decides to talk about the immigration crisis. Her students respond very well to this, and after a few classes, everyone decides that the class should be a “migration think tank.” In keeping with this, Luiselli invites various experts to visit the course, and the students participate in engaged discussions about undocumented minors.
Luiselli again shows her commitment to the importance of discussing the immigrant narrative. This time, she uses the resources she has to spread awareness about the immigration crisis, urging her students to consider the nuances of the situation. This, in turn, is a manifestation of her belief that the topic is worth talking about even if answers to the problem aren’t immediately forthcoming.
Themes
There are laws in the United States dictating that all children are entitled to public education, but many school districts have created “obstacles” for child migrants, implementing rules that make it hard for them to access free education. Luiselli explains that Nassau County—where Hempstead is located—is one of the places where school districts have actively “denied entrance to many children based on their lack of appropriate immigration papers.” This, Luiselli notes, is an “illegal practice,” but schools nation-wide have continued to defy the law in this regard. As a result, it has been very hard for Manu to switch schools to avoid MS-13 and Barrio 18. After having gained entrance to a school in Long Beach, he was subsequently informed that he didn’t speak English well enough to attend. Similarly, other high schools claimed he didn’t meet their requirements because of his immigration status.
It again becomes apparent that Manu is in an extraordinarily difficult situation. He’s required to go to school in order to gain immigration relief, but doing so forces him to face the same dangers he faced at home. On top of this, he can’t even switch schools to avoid gangs because many school districts are blatantly breaking the law by keeping undocumented minors from enrolling. These circumstances put Manu in a dangerous position, forcing him to fend for himself against gangs like MS-13 and Barrio 18. Given these conditions, it’s rather unsurprising that many undocumented migrants end up joining gangs, since there are few other options that will ensure their personal safety.
Themes
One day, Luiselli’s students tell her they want to form a nonprofit organization to address the issues they’ve been discussing in class. Luiselli listens carefully, thinking that their idea is “simple and brilliant.” “The crisis will deepen and spread,” the students observe, saying that newly-arrived immigrant children will continue to suffer unless they can “find a way to become quickly and fully integrated.” Otherwise, they will—like Manu—find themselves the target of gangs like MS-13 and Barrio 18, just like they would in their home countries. Since the schools in Nassau County are so “terribly deficient when it comes to public education and services,” the students argue, private institutions like Hofstra should step in, using their resources to help the immigrant community.
Luiselli’s students are enthusiastic when it comes to addressing the immigration crisis. Using the resources available to them as students at a well-funded private university, they recognize the value of community engagement, understanding that strong support networks have the power to keep undocumented migrants from succumbing to pressure from gangs. By providing people like Manu with an alternative to gang life, they foster a sense of community support that will help migrants “integrate” into society and thus avoid the dangers they tried to escape by migrating in the first place.
Themes
Luiselli’s students decide that their organization should provide “intensive English classes, college prep sessions, team sports, a radio program, and a civil rights and duties discussion group.” The group will be called the Teenage Immigrant Integration Association, or TIIA. Luiselli loves the idea, realizing that “it only takes a group of ten motivated students to begin making a small difference.” And though the reach of groups like TIIA might be “small,” they are one of the only things that make Luiselli hopeful about the future of the immigration crisis.
Throughout Tell Me How It Ends, Luiselli doesn’t propose many solutions to the immigration crisis—because there aren’t many straightforward ways to address the situation. However, she has a rare moment of optimism here, when she points out that even small groups of committed activists can make a “difference.” This, she implies, is what communities need to do. By creating support networks and helping migrants integrate, people like Luiselli’s students can have a significant impact on an otherwise hopeless dilemma.
Themes
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Luiselli acknowledges that some things “can only be understood retrospectively.” The nuances of the immigration crisis, she believes, are among these things. “While the story continues,” she writes, “the only thing to do is tell it over and over again as it develops, bifurcates, knots around itself. And it must be told, because before anything can be understood, it has to be narrated many times, in many different words, and from many different angles, by many different minds.”
Again, Luiselli draws attention to the importance of storytelling. Although people might not fully understand the immigration crisis, she believes it’s still worth talking about. This will help everyone begin to grasp the subtleties of the problem. Through the use of language and narrative, then, society can begin to work toward a solution.
Themes
When Luiselli begins writing Tell Me How It Ends in 2015, her green card has still not come. Because her temporary work permit eventually expires, she’s forced to quit her job at Hofstra right before the end of the semester. She asks lawyers if she can continue as a “volunteer” instructor, but they tell her she can’t, since the country’s immigration laws are quite strict. With nothing to do, then, she begins writing about the immigration crisis, feeling as if she’ll never be able to write about anything else until she puts this story on paper.
It makes sense that Luiselli decides to write about the immigration crisis, considering her belief in the importance of storytelling. Committing herself to the importance of language, she takes it upon herself to clarify and spread the immigrant narrative. In this way, she emphasizes the idea that such stories “must be told” before “anything can be understood.”
Themes
“Why did you come to the United States?” Luiselli asks herself, examining the question once again. “Perhaps no one knows the real answer.” All she knows is that people who stay in the United States long enough are eventually willing to “give everything” to “stay and play a part in the great theater of belonging.” This is because staying in the United States is, for an immigrant, “an end in itself.” Staying, Luiselli writes, means relearning how to live one’s life, “no matter the cost.” “Why did you come here?” she once asked a little girl. “Because I wanted to arrive,” the girl replied.
It’s worth noting Luiselli’s line equating migrating to the United States with “giv[ing] everything” to become part of the country’s “great theater of belonging.” This highlights the extent to which migrants make personal sacrifices just to come to the United States and live ordinary lives. It also stresses the importance of groups like TIIA, which help people build communities and, thus, assimilate into the country’s “theater of belonging.”
Themes
