I should do something,’ he whispered. But he knew better.
-- Mahmoud (Mahmoud's Perspective)

Importance: This quote symbolizes the challenges each individual feels in confronting violence against others. Mahmoud thinks this to himself when he and his brother see the neighborhood bullies. He feels the anguish of watching another kid get beat up over the bread he carries, and debates to himself whether he should help him. But in his past, when he had confronted bullies, he had been beaten up badly. He learns to just try to be invisible to survive. Later as a refugee, Mahmoud realizes that he needs to be visible, not invisible for people to care. He realizes that the other people around him also feeling torn about helping another results in generally ignoring the refugee crisis, rather than helping. In order to be visible, he leads the march out of Hungary into Austria, which eventually takes them into Germany.

The...
-- Josef (Josef's Perspective)