Wealth and loss
The novel begins with an archetypal motif: a change of station. Suddenly, the wealth and excess that defined Hannah and Leo's experience of life is removed from them, and their journey is incited. They are forced to leave Germany as fugitives, and they go from privilege and absolute power to complete powerlessness. They go from excessive resources to complete dependeNcy. Typically, this motif is partnered with a consideration of fate.
The symbolic friends
Instead of showing the unifying side of fate, this novel shows the chaotic side of fate. The boy and girl aren't brought together; they are rent apart. The friends symbolize community, since they are in community through relationship. In this case, the symbolic reading might be that the chaos of war drives a wedge between communities. That makes sense, considering the symbolic package from Hannah to Anna which also shows something similar.
The ship
The ship represents the fateful passage into chaos that the characters endure. The ship is a good symbol for this journey, because the ship makes a voyage through waters that are chaotic by nature. They are all exposed to chaos, dependent on chances. The question of fate and fortune is clearly at stake when the ship tries to harbor and is rejected by the Americans. Suddenly, the ship which represented hope for escape now represents a likely demise.
Cuba as a new home
Cuba represents a chance at life. This is shown through implication when Leo realizes that because he is not admitted into Cuba, he will probably starve to death in the ocean, because the ship didn't have enough resources to make the return voyage, and even then, they would be returning to Europe in the height of World War II. The symbol is poignant, because no one really wants to go to Cuba; they were rich and powerful people in Germany, and now they are struggling for a chance to be peasants in a country they had no desire of going to.
The package
When Anna receives a package from her great aunt, Hannah, the reader sees that as a clear symbol, perhaps pointing to the absurdity of experience. Although Hannah wants to survive, her experience is clouded by loneliness; she wants her experiences to be witnessed by someone she loves, but she is alone in Cuba. Her package implies her loneliness, and it symbolizes the same loneliness in Anna, who was also lonely, because her family was destroyed by war. The package symbolizes the agony of loneliness and the need for one's suffering to be acknowledged.
