Previous
Pages 62–71
Themes
and Colors
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
As the crowd walks, Felix tells stories to Zelda to distract her. Sick, hungry, and worried about his parents, he trails off. Zelda prompts him, reminding him that “William and Violet Elizabeth are in the big cake shop at the zoo.” Felix tells Zelda that a gorilla escapes the zoo, so William and Violet Elizabeth fill a hotel room with foods gorillas love and lurk in the room’s closet with a net.
William and Violet Elizabeth are characters in Richmal Crompton’s Just William series; Felix is repurposing the books he loves to take emotional care of Zelda, showing how stories can help children endure painful situations. When Felix loses his focus, Zelda returns him to the story; while it’s possible she simply wants to know what happens next, it's also possible she is trying to take care of him at the same time as he takes care of her, indicating their growing emotional bond.
Active
Themes
The man Felix asked about books goes into hysterics, shouting at the Nazis. One Nazi strikes him down with a gun, and other Nazis kick him. Felix blocks Zelda’s view and talks loudly about the gorilla-catching plan. When Zelda pooh-poohs the plan, Felix asks her to invent a better one. Zelda says that they could “dig a big hole, like those people over there,” to catch the gorilla. Through trees, Felix sees hundreds of people digging while soldiers aim guns at them. When Zelda asks what the people are doing, Felix can’t invent a response. Zelda suggests that “a gorilla has really escaped” and throws her arms around Felix.
Nazi soldiers sometimes forced their victims to dig their own mass graves before shooting them. It is likely that the people Felix and Zelda see digging are about to be shot and buried in a large mass grave. Felix’s inability to guess what’s going on and Zelda’s panicked suggestion that a “gorilla really has escaped” highlight their innocence, their attempts to use stories to make sense of the world, and their unspoken, panicked sense that something truly terrible is going on.
Active
Themes
Zelda says that the gorilla’s nice friend tried to get the army not to bother the gorilla, so soldiers hit him with a gun. Felix realizes that she saw what the Nazis did to the shouting man. Felix hugs Zelda and says the friend will “get better” and then he and the gorilla will start a cake shop in the jungle. Zelda agrees, but Felix knows neither of them fully “believes it.”
When the crowd reaches the city, Felix notices that unlike “in stories,” it’s ugly, full of Nazi banners and soldiers, without a cake shop in sight. The city-dwellers shout “dirty Jews” at the crowd. Felix thinks it should be obvious that they’re dirty; they’ve been traveling for hours in the rain. Zelda says she doesn’t like the city; Felix wants to cheer her up but can’t think of stories. Nazis are forcing Jewish people to get on their knees and clean the cobblestones while city-dwellers laugh. Upset, Felix hopes his parents didn’t have to clean.
Active
Themes
Get the entire Once LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Felix sees Nazis tossing Jewish children into a truck while their parents yell and sob. He wonders why the Nazis would take children away from their parents. Wanting to stay and find his own parents, Felix grabs Zelda and looks for somewhere to hide. Shots ring out. Felix sees two bleeding bodies. Then a Nazi soldier, having grabbed a child, shoots a man trying to retrieve the child. Zelda screams. A Nazi grabs her and aims a gun at her. Felix begs him not to shoot and then, sick and exhausted, collapses in the street.
Active
Themes
