Abdication of Personal Responsibility

Gratz uses the theme of abdication of personal responsibility to show how refugees are treated on their travels, and to show to the reader how these situations become exacerbated. Often, people in the novel use the excuse of just doing one’s job, or following orders, or trying to survive. For instance while Mahmoud and his father are processed in Hungary, the officer tells him, “I’m just doing my job” (269). This response, though, abdicates the individual’s responsibility from the situation, and allows them to treat others inhumanely without feeling guilty. However, when life is only about your survival or your family’s survival, the result is a greater humanitarian crisis. Gratz uses this theme to demonstrate to the reader how complex these feelings can be for individuals, and how no one is exempt from feeling this way at times.

Gratz uses...