Men in the Sun

I think two important themes in the novel Men in the Sun is the idea of fate and the act of being hopeless or helpless. The three refugees in the story are being held down by the life they were born into and long to break free to the prospering land of Kuwait. However, their journey ends with their tragic deaths on the path of their escape, bringing into question fate. Were these refugees meant to break free of the life given to them? Is that why they joined the many unsuccessful attempts at trying to make it across the Iraq/Kuwait border? Due to the fact that this story ends tragically, it could be possible that even today it could be used as a deterrent to keep people from attempting to move up in the social order and disrupting the "predestined" heirarchy of many nations. Moving back to the idea that these refugees are helpless, we can see this proven by the fact that they needed to seek help from a higher figure, or smuggler to help them reach their goal, they could not do it by themselves. Also, they are hopeless and poor in their current lives, so the two choices presented to them leave them with the only option of being helpless, which probably played a big role in their decision to try and have control of their life in this new prosperous land.