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Pages 53–61
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 wakes up from a dream about his parents reading him “a story about a boy who got left in an orphanage” and finds himself in a haystack. When Zelda complains of hunger, he shares his bread and water—and when she complains about his smelly hat, he doesn’t mention its firefighting properties so as not to make her think about her destroyed home. She mentions that her head hurts; Felix realizes that his does too. He’s also cold and sweaty.
Felix’s dream expresses his secret wish: that his current life was just a story and that his stories about reuniting with his parents were reality. Despite Felix’s understandable discontent with his situation, he treats Zelda kindly and responsibly, sharing his limited supplies, trying to protect her mood, and not complaining about his own discomfort. Yet again, the novel is implicitly contrasting Felix’s actual goodness with the hateful antisemitic stereotypes that Nazi propagandists spread about Jewish people.
Themes
Felix hears voices in the road. He tells Zelda to stay put and creeps to the hedge to see what’s going on. In the road, a crowd of exhausted-looking people are carrying their belongings and wearing armbands marked with “a Jewish star.” Felix supposes the people put on the armbands “so they can recognize the other members of their group” and compares the armbands to the “paper saints” the orphanage uses to distinguish between different dormitory teams when they play sports.
By “a Jewish star” Felix means a Star of David, a Jewish religious and cultural symbol; the Nazi forces occupying Poland during WWII required Jewish people to wear armbands with a Star of David on them. That Felix doesn’t know the name for a Star of David emphasizes yet again that Nazi antisemitism was all-encompassing, targeting every Jewish person, whether religiously Jewish, culturally Jewish, or (like Felix) ethnically Jewish without much knowledge of Judaism. Felix doesn’t understand that the Nazis are forcing Jewish people to wear the armbands to more easily identify and persecute them; instead, he imagines that the travelers chose the armbands themselves, to “recognize” each other, like players on the same sports team. His innocent, inaccurate comparison of the armbands to sports emblems highlights the actual horror of the events he’s witnessing.
Themes
Nearby, armed soldiers ride on motorcycles and yell at the crowd in a language Felix doesn’t understand. Felix realizes the soldiers must be Nazis and guesses that the travelers are “Jewish book owners” whom the Nazis are forcing to travel to the city. He looks for his parents but can’t find them.
By now, Felix has repeatedly doubted his own theory that the Nazis are only persecuting “Jewish book owners.” He may be clinging to the theory anyway not only because the truth of all-encompassing Nazi antisemitism is too horrifying for him but also because he hopes to spot his bookseller parents in the crowd.
Themes
Zelda screams. Felix, exiting the hedge, sees a Nazi aiming at her. When Felix yells at the Nazi not to shoot, the Nazi aims at him. Seeing his notebook on the ground, Felix realizes he dropped it and supposes the Nazi believes he’s a rebellious Jewish book owner. He says that it’s a notebook, not a book, and that he plans to surrender it in the city. The Nazi stares. Interpreting the Nazi’s silence as disbelief, Felix apologizes for yelling and claims that in the mountains where he’s from, people yell and yodel to make sure others hear them. The soldier gestures at the hedge with his gun. Felix explain to Zelda that the Nazi wants them to join the crowd going to the city.
The Nazi soldier likely doesn’t speak Polish, a fact that renders Felix’s fast-talking explanations useless. Though the Nazi soldier literally can’t understand Felix’s stories, readers can also interpret the scene figuratively: stories have limited power because some people are unwilling to listen to them or recognize their morals, just as the Nazi soldier is unwilling to recognize the humanity of the young, story-loving Jewish boy whom he’s menacing with a gun.
Themes
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Walking with the crowd, Felix looks for his parents but can’t find them. He hopes they’ve already reached the city and can rest. He also hopes any Nazis his parents have interacted with are politer than the ones policing this crowd, since his mother tends to scold rude people. When Zelda complains that her feet hurt, Felix notices she only has slippers on and gives her a piggyback ride. Children in the crowd whose parents are too tired to carry them give Zelda envious looks.
Here Felix displays both his growing awareness of danger and his residual innocence: he’s aware enough of the threat Nazis pose to hope his mother didn’t scold rude Nazis, but he’s not aware enough to realize that his mother would likely be far too frightened to attempt such a scolding. Felix’s willingness to give Zelda a piggyback ride shows Felix’s generosity and the two children’s growing bond.
Themes
Eventually Felix feels too sick to carry Zelda. He puts her down, wraps her feet in rags from his shoes, and puts her slippers on over them. When she tells him the rags feel strange, he tries to make her feel better by claiming that all the best explorers have worn rags like that. In the future, Felix insists, shoes will be manufactured with interior rags. Zelda, scornful, says that in the future, people will have wheels for feet.
Despite his own illness, Felix does his best to make sure that Zelda is as physically comfortable as possible and in good spirits—taking an almost parental role toward her.
Themes
Later, Zelda notices an old woman crying and asks Felix why all the people around them are upset. Felix, wanting to keep Zelda’s spirits up, decides not to tell her that everyone’s terrified for their “books and parents.” He claims the people are sad because they don’t have foot rags. Then the crying old woman collapses. No one tries to help her. Felix realizes he can’t help her either; he’s too sick and exhausted.
Though Zelda is only about six, she notices that the crowd is unhappy; while children may be innocent or ignorant of the world’s evil, they still recognize and are affected by others’ suffering. Felix’s guess that everyone is scared for “books and parents” shows the limitations of his understanding, while his decision not to be honest with Zelda repeats a pattern in the novel in which older characters lie to younger ones to try to protect them.
Themes
Zelda asks what’s wrong with the woman. Felix says she’s resting, but soon a farmer will come adopt her, and in the future she’ll “invent a machine that milks [cows] automatically and also makes butter.” Zelda, scornful, replies that in the future, cows will be making the butter. Meanwhile, Felix is still wondering whether Nazis would persecute people like this just because of books. He asks one of the walking men whether he’s “a book lover,” and the man’s face twists with incredulity and intense sorrow. Felix realizes that the Nazis may hate Jewish people, not just Jewish books.
Though Zelda tends to respond scornfully to Felix’s stories, she participates in them by one-upping them, making claims even more outrageous than Felix’s. This dynamic shows that both children love using their imaginations; it also suggests a big brother-little sister dynamic, though Felix and Zelda are not literally related. The disbelieving reaction of the man whom Felix asks about books further erodes Felix’s confidence in his initial theories about the Nazis and opens his eyes to the antisemitism around him.
Themes
