Previous
Pages 132–143
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Once, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Storytelling
Innocence and Ignorance
Antisemitism vs. Human Dignity
Family
Morality, Violence, and Complicity
Summary
Analysis
Nazi soldiers march Barney, Felix carrying Zelda on his back, and the other children through the ghetto. When Felix asks Barney where they’re going, he says they’re headed for the train station. When Felix asks whether the station will have water for Zelda, Barney says yes; Felix hopes he’s right, because they haven’t managed to give her the aspirin yet. When Felix asks whether the station is far away, Barney ignores him, instead giving the children an excessively positive pep talk. Felix fears this means that the walk will be long—and they’ll be murdered on arrival.
Throughout the novel, adults have lied to Felix or hidden the truth from him when they thought he was too young to handle it. Felix has matured enough over the course of the novel that he knows recognizes this phenomenon: when Barney dodges his question about the journey to the station, Felix realizes that Barney is concealing a scary truth.
Themes
On the way, Felix concocts a plan to save Zelda’s life. He tells her to take back the silver locket. When she hesitates, he praises the gift but insists she take it. At last, she does. When they reach the station, Barney asks the children whether they’re excited to ride a train. Most of the kids say they are—which suggests to Felix that they haven’t noticed Nazi soldiers with dogs and whips forcing people into the train cars.
Felix’s plan to save Zelda requires that she wear her locket—which suggests Felix is hoping the Nazis won’t kill Zelda once they realize her father was a Nazi collaborator. Felix selflessly tries to save Zelda rather than trying to use the locket to save himself, once again showing his goodness and his brotherly love for Zelda. The other children’s excitement about the train suggests that Felix is the only one Barney has told about the concentration camps.
Themes
When a woman standing in line for the train faints, a Nazi shoots her. Ruth screams. Quickly, Barney tells the children to make a tent. He and the children huddle under their coats, and he passes around a water bottle for them to sip. Once they’ve all had some, he instructs Felix to crush two aspirin, add it to the water bottle, and shake it. Barney makes Zelda drink the water with aspirin. Felix shows Zelda’s locket to Barney. When Chaya sees it too, she says she hates Polish collaborators. Barney says that the Polish Resistance must be responsible for Zelda’s parents’ deaths. Felix insists they need to tell someone.
Barney makes a tent, shutting out the world to avoid terrifying the children in a situation they can’t escape. This kind gesture illustrates that protecting children from evil truths isn’t always a bad thing—it’s just that often, concealing evil truths exposes children to greater danger. During the Nazi occupation, the Polish Resistance did execute some Polish people who collaborated with the Nazis, so Barney’s inference that the Resistance killed Zelda’s collaborator father is a reasonable one.
Themes
Barney tells the children to stay in the tent. He and Felix (carrying Zelda) crawl from beneath the coats. Looking for an authority, Felix spots the Nazi officer who wanted Felix’s story. He pulls out his notebook, rips out the story, and brandishes it at the Nazi officer. When the officer comes over, Felix gives him the pages; the officer smiles and takes them. Felix gestures to Zelda’s locket and Barney speaks German. Zelda says the “Polish assistance” killed her parents.
Originally, Felix wanted to give the Nazi officer his story so the Nazi officer would help find Felix’s parents. Now, he gives the Nazi officer the story hoping to save Zelda. This shift shows how Zelda has become Felix’s family. Felix’s efforts here hold out hope that his love of storytelling, which the notebook represents, will manage to save a life—though the novel has repeatedly suggested that stories have limited power to change the minds of people committed to systemic evil, which may foreshadow that Felix’s attempt won’t succeed. Zelda’s assertion that the “Polish assistance” killed her parents, meanwhile, hints that she’s too young to understand what the Polish Resistance is.
Themes
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The Nazi officer gestures for Zelda and Barney to leave the station. Barney speaks German and gestures to the other children; Felix infers he’s asking whether they can come too. The Nazi officer shakes his head. Felix tells Barney to go with Zelda and volunteers to care for the others, but Barney keeps speaking in German. Then Nazi soldiers grab Felix and the other children and carry them toward the train. Barney hands Zelda to the officer and runs after the children.
The Nazi officer refuses to spare the lives of the Jewish children, showing that his acts of apparent friendliness toward Barney and Felix are meaningless in the larger context of his participation in the systematic evil of the Holocaust. Barney decides not to go with Zelda and save his own life, choosing instead to die with the children in his care—a choice that demonstrates his fatherly devotion to them.
Themes
Zelda fights against the Nazi officer, trying to go with the others. Felix, landing in a train car full of people, yells goodbye to her—only for a Nazi soldier to throw her on top of him. When Felix asks why Zelda came with them, Zelda replies, “I bit the Nazi […]. Don’t you know anything?” Felix hears banging and realizes the Nazis are nailing the doors to the train cars shut.
Unlike Barney, Zelda probably doesn’t know where the train is heading (to a concentration camp). Like Barney, however, she would rather remain loyally with Felix and the others than flee danger. Her scornful response to Felix’s question implies that she didn’t find it to be a difficult choice—which illustrates her sisterly love for Felix and her rejection of the antisemitism her parents embraced.
Themes
