Carrots Symbol Analysis

In Once, carrots represent the hope that Felix tries to inspire in others under horrific circumstances. At the novel’s beginning, Felix finds a whole carrot in his soup at the remote Catholic orphanage where his parents left him after Nazis invaded Poland. Because carrots are his “favorite vegetable” and rare at the impoverished orphanage, Felix decides the carrot must be a message from his parents. Before Felix runs away to find them, he gives the carrot to his orphan friend Dodie, promising he’ll return with more vegetables after his family reunites. Thus, Felix uses the carrot to inspire hope in Dodie that Dodie won’t permanently lose one of the only affectionate relationships in his life, his friendship with Felix. While searching for his parents, Felix meets an orphaned girl, Zelda, and Barney, a Jewish dentist hiding Jewish children from the Nazis. When Zelda contracts a dangerous fever, Barney sends Felix into the Nazi-patrolled ghetto to find aspirin. Felix decides to find a carrot too, believing it will “help Zelda just as much as aspirin.” Felix’s belief suggests that hope (which carrots symbolize in the novel) is as important to survival as medicine. Before Felix can give Zelda the carrot, Nazis capture them, Barney, and the other children and put them on a train to a concentration camp. When Felix finds a rotted-out section of the train wall, he tries to convince the other children to jump to freedom with him—and uses the carrot he found for Zelda as an illustration of the good future they might have if they escape. Though most of the children refuse to jump, Zelda and Chaya agree—and Felix and Zelda survive, though Chaya is killed. Thus, the carrot represents how hope—justified or unjustified—inspires characters to fight for better futures.