Sam Character Analysis in The Refugees

Thomas’s ex-wife in “Someone Else Besides You.” Sam is a high school geometry teacher and is both kind and patient. She had waited many years to have a child with Thomas, who was always unsure as to whether he would make a good father. When Sam turned thirty-four, she had gotten tired of waiting, and after the two had gotten a divorce, Sam decides to have a child on her own. When Thomas sees Sam pregnant, he regrets the opportunity he lost with her and works to try and win her back. By the end of the story, he tells her that he wants to be the father of her child.

Sam Quotes in The Refugees

The The Refugees quotes below are all either spoken by Sam or refer to Sam. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

War and the Refugee Experience Theme Icon

). Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Grove Press edition of The Refugees published in 2017.

“Who says I want her back?”

“Don’t be an idiot. You were only half a man before you met her, and you’re back to being half a man now.”

Related Characters: (speaker), (speaker), ,

Page Number and Citation: 161

Explanation and Analysis:

When I spoke, it was so softly that only the stranger curled up behind the belly ring could hear. Then I said it once more, louder: “I can be the father.” Feeling Sam’s hand grip my shoulder, I said it a third time, just to make sure they both heard me right.

Related Characters: (speaker), ,

Page Number and Citation: 179

Explanation and Analysis:

Sam Character Timeline in The Refugees

The timeline below shows where the character Sam appears in The Refugees. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

During Thomas’s lunch break, he calls his ex-wife Sam’s home number just to listen to her answering machine. Sam is a tenth-grade geometry teacher,... (full context)

Thomas says that the job is perfect, because after Sam left him and Thomas’s mother had died, he could no longer sleep. He mostly sits... (full context)

Sam is patient, but her patience ran out the previous year when she turned thirty-four. She... (full context)

...soon after. In the car, Thomas’s father asks when the last time Thomas spoke with Sam was. Thomas responds that they spoke after his mother died. His father asks how he... (full context)

Mr. P. says that Thomas should never have let Sam go. Thomas starts to cry. He remembers that he had not cried during Thomas’s mother’s... (full context)

...a barbershop, where Thomas gets a very short haircut. Thomas’s father then takes him to Sam’s doorstep. As he knocks on the door, Thomas says that this is a mistake. His... (full context)

Sam is surprised to see them, and says they should have called. Thomas says they were... (full context)

Mr. P. compliments Sam on the house, but she says that most of the decorations are her roommate’s. Thomas’s... (full context)

When Sam leaves, Thomas looks for traces of a man, but can only find mementos from their... (full context)

...the car with Mr. P. As they pull out of the street, Thomas’s father sees Sam’s car and tells him to stop. He gets out of the car and slashes all... (full context)

...have married other people, even though he would not have been born. He wonders if Sam had realized this before he did, and that’s why she divorced him. (full context)

...next day, he falls into bed until he hears a knock on the front door: Sam. She asks how he could have slashed her tires. Thomas retrieves an envelope full of... (full context)

Sam tells Thomas that when she saw the tires, she wanted to kill him—but that she... (full context)

Sam tells Thomas to stand up and asks if he knows what he’s saying—or what he’s... (full context)