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Pages 153–161
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
Felix lies dazed in the field. Beside him, Chaya lies dead from machine-gun fire. Felix resolves to move her body under a beautiful nearby tree when he feels up to it. He asks Zelda how she is. She says she’s fine: “We’re lucky.” Felix agrees. He felt syringes in Barney’s jacket when they hugged; he’s sure that Barney “won’t let the others suffer.” Felix ponders that he doesn’t know how his story will end—it could end soon or a long time in the future—but either way, he’s had good things in his life “more than once.”
Chaya died, and Felix and Zelda were “lucky” to survive, outcomes that show the other children weren’t unreasonable to stay on the train—even if that choice will likely lead to their deaths. Felix’s certainty that Barney “won’t let the others suffer” implies that as a last act of parental love, Barney will give the other children lethal doses of the anesthetic he found in the dentist’s surgery rather than let Nazis torture and kill them. Finally, Felix’s conclusion that he's had good things in his life “more than once” despite the horrors of the Holocaust implicitly argues that acting morally and developing close bonds with others are meaningful, valuable activities even under conditions of extreme suffering and persecution. The change in meaning of the word “once”—which also began the book—from a fairy-tale invocation to a counting word, meanwhile, suggests that Felix has grown beyond his excessive dependence on stories.
Themes
