Themes

The themes of the novel are generally related to the background and circumstances of Israeli independence: Characters behave in the present according to their reactions to the past and their visions of the future. Alienation repeatedly appears: victims of the Nazis manifest levels of alienation ranging from silent agony to madness.

Tolerance is another theme which receives extensive treatment. For individuals and communities, tolerance enables harmony and peace, while intolerance breeds division and violence.

The subject of freedom is a central concern in Exodus; characters seek, with varying degrees of intensity, forms of liberation, and to some extent the novel links personal and political liberation. History itself becomes a theme of the work as Uris includes and provides a context for such events as the United Nations vote on whether or not to partition Palestine.

Exodus touches on the theme of the role of the artist. The novel...