Once Literary Elements

Historical Fiction

Much of the novel is set 1943 in Nazi-controlled Poland, a time in which the Jewish people were being prosecuted and killed by the Nazi Germans.

The novel is told from the perspective of Felix, a young Jewish boy who is the novel's protagonist and main character.

Tonally, the novel is respectful, empathetic, and reflective. The novel's mood is dark, doom-filled, depressing, and cynical.

Felix is the novel's protagonist and the Nazis are the novel's antagonist.

Felix's attempts to deal with his new life without his parents and his struggles against the tyrannical Nazi war machine is the main conflict of the novel.

The climax of the novel occurs when Zelda and Felix escape the train that is bound for the concentration camp and go into the forests together.

Felix and Zelda being put on the train are foreshadowed by their previous interactions with Nazi soldiers inside the city when they were saved by Barney.

Felix's naivete is understated initially in the novel.

There are allusions to the history and culture of Nazi Germany, especially Jewish history and significant events in the Holocaust. There are also allusions to the Jewish religion and Nazi religions, as well as Polish geography.

To emphasize how violent and depressing the Holocaust was, Gleitzman utilizes intense imagery to underscore how terrible the Holocaust was.

At the start of the novel, Felix is portrayed as a self-sufficient boy, even though he is only nine years old and a small child.

Not applicable.

Hitler is a metonym used to describe the leader of Nazi Germany and what he did involving the Holocaust.

The trains Felix and Zelda find themselves on at the end of the novel are personified and given human characteristics.