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Pages 1–8
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’s parents don’t come that night. Felix tells himself they wouldn’t risk taking the road into the mountains in the dark; Father Ludwik claims to get help from God when he does it, and Felix’s parents “were never very religious.”
When Felix’s parents don’t come, he rationalizes their failure to appear—which shows how his imagination, rather than bringing him closer to the truth, helps him to construct a false, optimistic story. His casual admission that his parents “were never very religious” reminds readers that Nazi antisemitism wasn’t just about persecuting and murdering religious Jewish people for their beliefs but also nonreligious Jewish people for their ethnicity alone. Readers with historical knowledge likely understand (as Felix does not) that Felix’s parents are in mortal danger, no matter what they believe.
Themes
Felix worries his parents won’t recognize him when they come: when they left him at the orphanage, he was much shorter, “plump,” and without glasses. But he remembers his parents promised never to forget him when they left him. He tells himself that this meant they’d come back for him “once they’d fixed up their bookshop troubles.” Besides, they gave him a notebook with a yellow cover, which he can use to identify himself and in which he’s written wild stories about their adventures “discovering why their bookshop supplies suddenly went so unreliable.”
Felix obviously loves his parents very much despite how long it’s been since he’s seen them; this, together with his parents’ poignant promise never to forget him, shows the depth of their family bond. That Felix plans to use his notebook, a gift from his parents, to identify himself when they arrive shows both that Felix inherited his love of stories from his parents and that storytelling is central to his identity. His belief that his parents left to “discover[] why their bookshop supplies suddenly went so unreliable,” finally, implies that his parents lied to him to protect him from the realities of antisemitism and Nazism.
Themes
At daybreak, Felix hears a car approaching the orphanage. Assuming his parents have somehow acquired a car, Felix rushes to the window. To his great disappointment, he sees not his parents but “a bunch of men in suits with armbands” exit the car.
Many Nazi uniforms included swastika armbands. Since Felix is living in Nazi-occupied Poland, readers can infer that the “men in suits with armbands” are Nazi soldiers. That Felix is merely disappointed, not afraid, shows how little he knows and how much danger his ignorance may expose him to.
Themes
As Felix heads for the dormitory exit, wanting to ask Mother Minka when his parents will come, Dodie tells him Jankiel, a new boy at the orphanage, is hiding in the bathroom. Annoyed that Jankiel is skittish about “strangers,” Felix tells Dodie to tell Jankiel that the men are likely Catholic administrators coming to make sure all the children are orphans. Then Felix wonders whether Mother Minka will lie to the men, sticking to the story about Felix’s parents’ sad, agriculture-related deaths.
Felix assumes that Jankiel is afraid of the visitors because they are “strangers,” but readers know that Jankiel, who came to the orphanage more recently than Felix, has likely witnessed the Nazi occupation and may be afraid of the visitors because they are Nazis. Here Felix reveals that Mother Minka has been lying to people about his parents, lending credence to the theory that she is hiding his background to protect him; despite her problematic use of corporal punishment, she is a person willing to risk her life to a hide a Jewish child from Nazis.
Themes
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Dodie tells Felix that Jankiel is hiding from “the torture squad,” not the visitors, and indicates a group of boys entering the bathroom. Dodie says they should go rescue Jankiel. When he and Felix enter the bathroom, the bullies are shoving Jankiel’s head into a toilet. Felix quickly tells the bullies that a plow horse killed Jankiel’s parents—it had a heart attack, fell, and crushed them. As they died, they made Jankiel promise to pray for them daily at the hour of their death. The chapel bell strikes seven, and Felix adds that Jankiel’s parents died at seven. When one bully claims that this is “just one of [Felix’s] stories,” Dodie adds that he hears Mother Minka coming.
Sadly and ironically, Dodie and Felix think of the orphanage’s bullies, not the visiting Nazis, as “the torture squad,” illustrating their ignorance of the atrocities the Nazis are perpetrating. Dodie’s desire to rescue Jankiel from the bullies reveals that despite his violent tendencies, he has some good moral instincts too. Felix’s use of a complicated lie to protect Jankiel shows that stories can be tools for affecting reality as well as escapes from reality, while one bully’s retort that it’s “just one of [Felix’s] stories” reveals that Felix is known in the orphanage for his tall tales.
Themes
The bullies flee the bathroom. Jankiel asks whether “they” have left. When Dodie says one of the bullies will be smearing Jankiel’s bed with mud, Jankiel says that he means the visitors. Felix says that Mother Minka will get the men to leave; he wonders whether Jankiel also has living parents, given how scared he looks. Jankiel thanks Felix for making up the story about the horse. When Felix says he hopes it didn’t upset Jankiel, Jankiel says it didn’t. “My parents froze to death,” he explains. While Felix processes this disturbing fact, Jankiel asks whether Felix often makes up stories; Felix admits he does, “sometimes.”
Jankiel knows that the real danger in the orphanage is not the bullies but the visitors, who are likely Nazis. Jankiel’s matter-of-fact admission that his parents “froze to death” not only illustrates his loss of childish innocence due to trauma but also makes clear that bad things can and do happen to children. When asked, Felix downplays his drive to tell stories, claiming he only does it “sometimes,” which suggests he may be a little ashamed.
Themes
As Felix, Dodie, and Jankiel walk back to the dormitory, Felix wonders whether Jankiel is Jewish too, since both boys have “dark eyes.” He knows it’s no use asking, however, since Jankiel wouldn’t admit to being Jewish “here.”
When Felix assumes that Jankiel would never admit to being Jewish “here,” it suggests that while Felix is ignorant of Nazism, he’s aware of antisemitism—at least enough to think that Jewish children wouldn’t be allowed in a Catholic orphanage.
Themes
Leaving Dodie and Jankiel, Felix goes to find Mother Minka. On his way, he looks out a window into the courtyard and sees Mother Minka gesticulating at the visitors. Then he sees smoke. At first, he wonders why the visitors are “having a bonfire.” Then he realizes that what the visitors are doing would make his parents cry: they’re burning books.
Throughout the 1930s, Nazis burned books in Germany and Austria that they believed opposed Nazism, including any books by Jewish authors. After invading Poland, Nazis engaged in mass books burnings there as well. Felix’s initial confusion at seeing the “bonfire” again shows both his childish innocence and his dangerous ignorance.
Themes
