Previous
Pages 144–152
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
In the crowded train, Felix apologizes for bumping into people until a man shouts at him to stop. When Barney says that Felix is a child and suggests that the man “give him a break,” the man asks, “Who’s giving us a break?” Felix sympathizes: the train won’t stop to let people use the bathroom, and there’s no toilet or toilet paper. Ruth, Moshe, and a few other passengers have already gone to the bathroom in the corner. When Jacob asks whether they’ll arrive soon, Barney shushes him. Felix suspects this is because if Jacob keeps asking, it will make other passengers angry too—especially since they’re trying not to think about the “death camp.”
Even in a dire situation, Felix shows his emotional generosity and empathetic character: he isn’t angry at the man who shouts at him because he understands that the man is reacting to the degrading conditions on the train (like extreme overcrowding and a lack of toilets) and out of fear of their destination, the “death camps.” Implicitly, the novel is pointing out how irrational and evil antisemitism is, as it denies the humanity of a kind, sensitive child like Felix.
Themes
An old woman pushes her way to the toilet corner, apologizing as she moves. Felix feels sorry for her and wonders whether this happened to his parents, but he tries not to think about it. Having an idea, he pulls out his notebook and passes pages through the crowd for the old woman to use. When they reach her, she bursts into tears.
Felix sacrifices part of his notebook, a gift from his parents that represents his love of storytelling, to make the train journey a little less humiliating for an old woman he doesn’t know. Once again, the novel is implicitly pointing out the irrationality of antisemitism, which refuses to recognize Felix’s humanity and goodness. In addition, this incident shows that Felix has fully learned that stories are tools appropriate for some situations and not others: sometimes notebooks are useful as stories—but sometimes they’re more useful as toilet paper.
Themes
At first, Felix only rips out unused notebook pages for people to use. Then, figuring his parents would understand, he rips out the written pages too and goes to impale them on a metal bolt in the wall by the toilet corner. When he grabs the bolt, it comes free—the plank it was attached to is rotten. He kicks the plank, and his foot breaks through it. He yells for Barney. Soon several men are kicking a hole in the wall. Once they’ve made the hole big enough, people start jumping out.
In the act of sacrificing his notebook, Felix discovers a weakness in the train wall through which the prisoners can escape. Since the notebook has represented Felix’s love of stories throughout the novel, this incident symbolically suggests that Felix is best equipped to survive once he realizes when stories are or aren’t appropriate.
Themes
Felix asks Barney whether Nazis will stop the train to catch escapees. Barney replies that they don’t need to. Gunfire rings out, and Barney explains that the Nazis have mounted machine guns on the roof. A woman, looking through the hole in the train car, shouts that some jumpers have reached the woods. Felix tells Barney they should all jump. Barney, seeming to think Felix is wrong, stares at the terrified children.
For much of the novel, Barney has known more than Felix, and the two characters have disagreed about what to do because of their asymmetrical knowledge. Now, however, they have the exact same limited information: they are headed for a concentration camp, where they will likely die, and if they jump from the train, they may escape—or die sooner. In possession of the same information, Felix and Barney disagree about what to do. This disagreement shows that while telling children the truth is important, everyone having access to the same truth won’t necessarily end disagreements or make it easier to decide what to do.
Themes
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Felix tells the other children a story about children who jump from a train, are adopted by a farmer, and, in the future, “invent a carrot that cures all illnesses.” He shows them the carrot he found for Zelda as an example, but most of them look doubtful. Barney says he won’t stop Felix from jumping but that he will stay with the children who choose to stay. Felix begs them all to jump, but four children quickly say they don’t want to. Felix, despairing, recognizes that “you can’t force people to believe a story.”
Felix tries to use storytelling to persuade the other children to jump; thus, the novel suggests that storytelling can be a survival tool, making people brave enough to try to save themselves. Since Felix tells a story about carrots, which have represented hope throughout the novel, the novel seems further to suggest that stories can be particularly helpful to survival when they help people hope for a better future. Yet Felix knows that “you can’t force people to believe a story,” reminding readers that while storytelling is a useful tool, it’s not an all-powerful one.
Themes
Zelda says she wants to jump. After a moment, Chaya says that she does too. Barney asks whether any of the other children want to; none do. Felix hugs all the children who plan to stay. Lastly, he hugs Barney and requests that if Barney meets Felix’s parents, he tell them that Felix loves them and knows “they did their very best.” Barney, crying, says he will. To the children who are staying, Felix says: “Only two wishes this time […] But at least we got to choose.” Then he, Zelda, and Chaya join hands and jump.
As far as readers know, Felix is the only one of the children Barney told about the concentration camps—and the children’s initial excitement at the prospect of riding a train seems to support the idea that they don’t know where the trains are headed. Thus, while Felix is glad that the children all “got to choose” how to respond to their situation, most are choosing in ignorance—and will likely die in a concentration camp as a result. This outcome underscores one of the novel’s recurring ideas, namely that keeping children ignorant puts them in danger.
Themes
