Of the number of themes evident in the novel Train, the complexity of human nature is a topic on which Danny cohen focuses. He does this because he does not want his readers to assume that people are only good or bad, but rather exist on a spectrum. Cohen’s theme is evidenced by the characters Wim, Kizzy, Tsura, and Marko.

 

In the chapter titled Marzahn, Tsura meets a Nazi guard named Wim. Although he is a Nazi, Cohen wants us to see both the good and the bad in him. On page 102, when alone with Tsura, Wim attempts to rape her: “[Wim] held out his arm, the...glass bottle close to her face…’Take off your clothes,’ he said.” Also, on page 102, Wim says that “Some people deserve to die” and promptly spits on the ground to show his disdain. While Cohen shows this evil, he then shows Wim’s good. He tells Tsura “I’ve got a wife. And two young boys...It’s lonely here. I’m just a guard, but I want my sons to be whatever they want. I’m fighting for them.” It shows that while he is a Nazi, he has love for others and isn’t simply one-dimensional. After talking to Wim that night, Tsura describes Wim differently than she would have before: “In another place, Wim would have been a good looking man with a soft smile and kind, brown eyes. Here, he was someone else.” This is Cohen’s way of having his readers see Wim’s complexity and understand that even the greatest evil is not finite.

 

Tsura is one of the most multi-dimensional characters in the novel. She has some amazing qualities such as her bravery and her consideration for others, but she is also sometimes prejudiced and cruel. When referring to her newfound knowledge that Marko was gay, Tsura says “That’s sickening, Marko!” (p. 262). She later emphasizes this point after ranting about how Marko wasn’t thinking about anyone but himself, the idea she used to justify her hate. “Tsura spoke as if Marko hadn’t considered these ideas before. As if he had a choice. ‘It’s sickening,’ she repeated” (p. 263). Then, on page 180, Tsura saves the lives of a baby and her mother. This is an amazing accomplishment. However, it is later revealed that the wife and baby are Nazis (p. 181). For the rest of the book, Tsura is racked with regret for saving the lives of the two Nazis. This is evidenced through lines such as “I should have let the infant die” (p. 181) , “She recalled the crying infant at the train station. She had saved his life, yet he’d grow up to wear a Nazi uniform” (p. 275),  and “She remembered the train station and the crying infant and his Nazi mother. Tsura had chosen to jump onto the tracks. I could have let the woman die” (p. 336).

At the same time, Tsura is very brave. The way Danny Cohen chooses to introduce Tsura to the reader is by showing her lying to Nazis to get through a U-Bahn station (p. 1). She’s calm, cool, and collected even though she is talking to someone with the power to kill her (p. 1-2). From the beginning, we are shown that her bravery is astounding.  Tsura also looks out for others, especially her people (the Roma) and her family. This is a recurring motif throughout the book, appearing in the lines “To Tsura, family was everything” (p. 312), “her mother’s name-Jaelle Lange- repeating as she drifted to sleep” (p. 279), and “Tsura’s thoughts were stuck on Kizzy, leading her to picture Marzahn. Her mother. And baby Samuel” (p. 179). She even attempted a heist on a Nazi camp, Marzahn, to attempt to free her people and her family (p. 89-107, 205-216). Evidently, her people and family are very important to her. Tsura’s conflicting positive and negative traits demonstrate the complexity that Cohen wants us to see in his characters.  

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     Though Kizzy is only thirteen years old, she is a very complex and conflicted character throughout the entire book. Cohen shows Kizzy is both a caring individual, but also someone that would put herself first and risk the safety of others. As she tries to escape the building she’s trapped in, she brings three Jewish kids with her: Felix, Esther, and Ari. Though she could have easily left them to be sent to Poland with everyone else, she helped them because she is a morally good person, even saving Ari on page 266: “[Ari] climbed through the bars toward a wooded area across the street…[he] disappeared behind a tree.” While this moment showed Kizzy’s good side, on page 264 we see a less moral side of Kizzy. When she was being chased by Nazis, she says: “‘I’ve gotta get out.’ Kizzy was prepared to leave Felix and Esther and the boy behind if she had to. She didn’t care about them” (264). There is a second point where she abandons the kids on page 267: “Kizzy ran to the doorway, leaving Felix and Esther behind, and bolted up the stairs” (267). And although Kizzy does these things, when she reaches Poland on the trains, Cohen shows us her final change of character before, as we can infer, she is killed at the death camp. When she was in line with Felix and Esther, “A hand grabbed her, pulling her aside...Stop. Slow down, please. Let me stay with my friends.” (329). It’s her final good deed to try and be with the people she cares about because she cares more about their safety than her own. Instead of, like before, leaving the kids by themselves, she wanted them to be safe and cared if they were in danger.

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     Marko is yet another complex character in the novel. Negatively, he is both extraordinarily selfish and headstrong. We see his selfishness when Tsura tells him he must take Kizzy with him out of Germany. He does not since he wants to have Alex Broden, his boyfriend, to himself. Because he wanted Alex to have papers, he sends Kizzy into a situation he knows is very dangerous (namely, taking Professor Duerr to Charite Hospital) in exchange for more time to get those papers. Due to his selfish actions, she eventually dies (p.36-52, 362). Another example of his selfishness can be found when he tries to find Kizzy at the hospital with Tsura. Before he says anything about Kizzy, he instead says “Sis, what do we do about Broden?” (p. 137,138). Marko does spends the majority of the book racked with regret about his decision to send Kizzy to Charite Hospital but Broden is, in most parts of the book, Marko’s first priority. We also see that Marko is headstrong and makes bad decisions during several parts of the novel. On page 13, Marko describes his attempts at taking a bag from Hackescher Market. “When Marko spotted her bag on the street, he’d pushed through the crowd… By the time he’d reached the market stall, the bag had disappeared. That’s when he’d seen the African boy with the woman’s bag on his back. Feeling cheated, he’d followed the kid into an alley and confronted him” (p.13).  Marko ended up winning that fight, but it almost proved catastrophic for him. The “African boy” had a knife, and if it weren’t for Elise interfering with the fight Marko might have died (p. 11). Afterwards, Marko feels bad about the confrontation, proving he didn’t give it enough forethought (p. 261). Clearly, it was a rash and altogether stupid decision to follow the kid into the alley. Later in the book, Marko also has the idea of storming a heavily guarded Nazi holding pen by wearing the uniform of a dead Nazi. His idea is shot down (p. 248). He doesn’t listen and keeps thinking about the idea (p. 260). On page 274, Tsura catches Marko with the uniform of the dead Nazi in his hands. She seemingly convinces him to not carry out his plan. After a fight with Tsura, Marko carries the plan out anyway. It fails so miserably that he accidentally incriminates the person he most cares about, Alex Broden, causing him to be deported and probably killed (305-309). Clearly, Marko is a headstrong character. Despite these negative traits, Marko does have some really great qualities. His sense of humor is astounding; he can laugh at the darkest things. He laughs uncontrollably the entire time he is running away from a Nazi hellbent on killing him and Alex (p. 83-84), and the “idea of Hitler losing the war amused Marko” (p. 14). After almost freaking out about leaving Kizzy with Professor Duerr, he simply laughs (p. 40). He’s also impressively brave. On page 14, a Nazi looks at Marko “with contempt,” causing Marko to “[dare] to say” “What?” On page 83 and 84, he bravely leads Alex through the streets of Berlin while being chased by Nazis. Additionally, many of Marko’s dumbest ideas require a great bit of bravery. This includes his escapade with the uniform of the dead Nazi (248, 260, 274, 305-309). It was an amazingly brave feat to try to lie his way into a Nazi holding pen using nothing but the uniform on his back. Lastly, Marko is very loving. He really cares for Kizzy but doesn’t want to show it. “She’ll catch a cold, Marko worried, but he stopped himself from saying aloud anything that would sound considerate” (p. 36). This is additionally evidenced by the line “the thought of little Kizzy getting caught filled Marko with dread.” (p. 38). Marko is also filled with love for Alex . Examples of their eternal love can be found throughout the book, such as when Marko and Alex sleep together in an abandoned basement (p. 108), when Marko describes his first kiss with Alex after Alex had switched jobs to be with Marko (p. 174-175), and when Marko stands outside the building Alex is being held in, thinking of the two of them. “Thinking about Alex, knowing he was so close, made Marko feel dizzy… He’d find Alex and get him out… Before he met Alex, he’d kissed a couple of girls and a dozen men. But Alex was better than all of them” (p. 234-235). Clearly, his love for Alex is all-consuming. These complex traits are what make Marko such a compelling character and reaffirm the theme of the complexity of human nature.

Danny Cohen’s theme that people are both good and bad, and that no one is specifically one or the other, is found many times throughout his novel. This theme, however, is especially evidenced through the complexity of the characters Tsura, Wim, Marko, and Kizzy. Cohen is making a statement: every human, no matter how evil or pure they may seem, is an individual and should be treated as such.