Refugee by Alan Gratz Literary Analysis Essay Sample

In the motivational book Refugee, by Alan Gratz, we learn more than just how refugees fight everything to escape. They sacrifice everything they had and many things they wanted, just to get to a new place with new opportunities. This historical non-fiction novel, demonstrates to us that your family will always do what is best for you, no matter the circumstance, they will always do what is best for your interest. 

One way Gratz shows us your family will always do what's best for you is when the families gave up one of their loved ones so that they could keep going forward. For example, in page 101, Mahmoud gave up baby Hanna to a stranger on a raft so that she wouldn't sink and him and his mother could stay a float for a while longer. Mahmoud had to give up his defenseless baby sister, so that him and his mother could survive. Another example is in page 115, when Isabel had to say goodbye to Ivan so that the rest of the group could keep paddling and make it to Miami before the coast guard caught them. She had to do that in order for the rest of the family could make it to Miami, and not leave all their effort in vain.  This shows us that your family will always do what's best for you.

Another way Gratz shows us this theme is by some characters giving themselves up, so the rest of the family could make it. One example of this is in page 141, when Lito drowned himself to distract the coast guard, sacrificing his freedom, so that the rest of the family could make it to Miami. Lito risked the chance of him being deported back to Cuba, but he didn't care, because he wanted to do what would be best for his family. Another example is on page 147, when Josef gave himself to the Nazis so that Ruthie could escape and didn't have to go to the concentration camp and survive. Josef knew the trauma his father had endured whilst being at the concentration camp, but he didn't let that from making sure Ruthie could escape and not have to go through all that. This shows us that your family will always do what's best for you. 

A third way that Gratz shows us your family will always do what's best for you is when they motivate each other when times were rough, to keep going. We can see this in page 88, when Josef always took care of Ruthie and stuck with her even when their father attempted to kill himself, and their mother was sedated with pills. He knew he had to take charge and keep Ruthie safe, they could escape a lot easier. Another way was in page 143, when Mahmoud encouraged everyone to march out of jail and walk all the way to the border with Austria. Mahmoud knew that it would be hard, and the policemen could shoot them at any time, but he had faith in the news Reporters and helped all his family escape to get further along in the process.  This shows us that your family will always do what's best for you.