In the book Refugee By Alan Gratz, I wonder how all of these kids get the confidence to do things, and how are they so brave?
This connects to the claim “In hard times you grow up faster.” In these hard times, Isabel, Josef, and Mahmoud need to be braver and have more confidence to survive. For example, when Isabel sold her trumpet for the gas for the boat trip fleeing Cuba. That trumpet was basically the only important thing Isabel owned and loved it a lot, but it was the only way to get to Florida and Isabel had to be strong and give it up. Another example was when Josef stood up to his dad when they were having the ‘medical inspection’ on the boat, for them to pass Josef had to bring up all the courage to SLAP his father and tell him that if he doesn’t behave he’ll be taken away like people were in the concentration camp, which would scare his father even more but it had to be done. Usually, Josef’s father would be the adult in the situation, but Josef had to step up and take that challenge in this part of the book. My last example is when Mahmoud stopped in front of a moving car and asked for help. Asking for help could be one of the bravest things to do in hard times, which actually saved Mahmoud’s family from not having anywhere to go, and his mother hugged and thanked Mahmoud for his bravery.
In the book Refugee By Alan Gratz, why is Waleed not scared? Why does he not get super frustrated? Does It seem like he doesn’t care?
Waleed isn’t showing any emotion because he is so used to the war, attacks, bombs, fighting, etc, that he doesn’t seem to care. Deep down probably Waleed cares, but he shows nothing, the war has made him different. He used to be very bold, outgoing, happy, and talkative but the war petrified him and he is now too afraid to show any emotion. This also connects to the claim “In hard times you grow up faster” because Waleed feels if he shows the emotion of being afraid, bad things will happen. He feels in the war he needs to be brave and grow up, but he shows that by just not caring. Waleed also probably isn’t getting frustrated because he is so used to the war that he has no hope left, and doesn’t need to feel frustrated anymore.