Refugee Novel Essay: Josefs Bravery

In Alan Gratz’s Refugee, the author displays each protagonist with different challenges and emotions all while demonstrating the three protagonists Josef, Isabel and Mahmoud's different strengths. Josef exemplifies bravery and responsibility, all simultaneously as being on his journey not only to freedom but also to becoming a man.  He is very meticulous and intelligent when it comes to hiding his identity; however, sure of who he truly is. He is also perpetually the leader and support system that his family needs at any time of crisis, whether that be his traumatized father or his youthful little sister Ruthie. Finally, in his last moments, he doesn't hesitate to do what is right for the good of what's left of his family. In this Novel Josef can be seen as a young man but as the pages turn he can be observed as a man who lives young.

The beginning of the book leads the reader to believe that Josef is a free-spirited young boy however in times of crisis his bravery and responsibility often peak through. To summarize the chapter “One day from home” where he showed great responsibility; Josef's mother and sister sleep, so Josef removes his paper Star of David armband and walks through the non-Jewish train cars. He buys a newspaper and has a pleasant interaction with the man who sold it, but Josef knows that the conversation would have been very different if he had been wearing his armband. This shows how Josef quickly analyzed the situation he was in and took action effectively. At first, Josef had no idea what was going which caused him to act rashly to try and stop the Nazi soldier earlier; however, he knows that he has to stay on the down-low to stay safe. This shows how quickly Josef can adjust to things and how responsible he truly is.

As one might notice throughout the book Josef constantly tries to be more like a “man” simply by being the leader his family needs. During their stay on the saint, Louis Josef has a bar mitzvah; however, it's not this ceremony that makes him a man, instead, it is the many responsibilities that Josef is forced to take on by the trauma of the journey that truly turns him into an adult. When his father's mental health worsens from the traumatic experience at the concentration camp. Josef surprisingly slaps and threatens him that he will pass the medical examination to make it into Cuba, effectively reversing the roles as father and son. Slapping your father is never right nor the answer however in the situation of life or death anything means everything. Josef honing his bravery not only to slap his father but to strip his title of a son shows how reliable he is. To put it into better words Josef has to sacrifice his childhood and innocence and wake up to the real world to be the leader his family needs to flee to freedom. Josef’s maturation continues as the situation worsens. After his father attempts suicide and is separated from the family, Josef's mother is stricken with grief, so Josef makes sure that Ruthie is being cared for and protected. Josef is constantly that support system that Ruthie needs to keep her innocence, the innocence that he couldn't keep.

Finally, in Josef's last moment, he exemplifies his final act of bravery as he decides the life or death decision for his mother. In the time of the 1800 people like the Josef, and the family were often mistreated and neglected. At this time further in the book Josef learned to grow from that to strengthen his personality, his family and his true identity. However, his hard work came to an end his past came back to haunt him. At this moment his mother had the decision to either save his little sister Ruthie or himself. As we know Josef is a selfless brilliant individual so he chose his family over himself just so his sister Ruthie can have the future he never had.