Editing Ro Laren (section)

==Themes==
The Bajorans have been described as analogues for a variety of displaced peoples, with ''Star Trek'' novelist [[Keith DeCandido]] comparing them to "[[Palestinians]], [[Jews]], [[Kurds]], [[Haitians]]; the sad reality is that you can pretty much pick and choose. History is full of people who have had their homes taken from them, forced to become refugees."<ref name="torensignro" /> The Cardassian occupation of Bajor (the Bajoran homeworld) has been compared to the [[Holocaust]], with Ro singled out as a [[Sh'erit ha-Pletah|Holocaust survivor]]. In his chapter "Speakers for the Dead: ''Star Trek'', the Holocaust, and the Representation of Atrocity" within the book ''Star Trek as Myth'', writer Matthew Wilheim Kapell compared the experiences and reactions of Ro Laren and Kira Nerys following the Cardassian occupation of Bajor.{{sfn|Kapell| 2010| pp=73–74}} He said that the impact on Ro represented the "non-American view of the holocaust" in that she does not fully recover from the trauma and continues to affect in, for example, preventing her from connecting with her religious beliefs in "The Next Phase". He explains that Kira is a far more "Americanize[d]" character, acting as a "resister and even liberator" during the occupation. As a result, unlike Ro, Kira retains her religious beliefs and does not typically show any ongoing emotional trauma.{{sfn|Kapell| 2010| pp=73–74}} Further commentary of Ro's relationship to religion have been made. In ''The Literary Galaxy of Star Trek'', James F. Broderick compared the situation in which Ro and La Forge are trapped out of phase in "The Next Phase" to that of the [[purgatory]] dweller in [[Dante Alighieri]]'s ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]''.{{sfn |Broderick|2006| p=193}}