Once By Morris Gleitzman

In the novel, “Once” by Morris Gleitzman, Gleitzman uses the plot, character, and style to convey the message of the harmful nature of hope throughout the entire book. One of the primary ways he shows it is through Felix, as well as other characters like Zelda. However, it is not just shown through the plot but through the changing of characters, and through the stylistic choices of Morris Gleitzman.

He shows the harmful nature of hope throughout the book in the form of a plot. Throughout the story, Felix enters a dangerous situation with hope in mind. To demonstrate, in the early chapters Felix goes down a river full of blood with the impression that it was the result of hunters' prey, he then goes down the river with hope in mind and then was eventually captured by the nazis down the line. Also, the character Zelda demonstrates this idea quite well, as she goes through all the tragedies in the book alongside Felix just for her dreams to be shattered. Glietzman interpreted this into the plot to represent the harmful nature of hope.

Initially, Felix’s hope was seen as positive and beneficial, however as the story progresses it becomes evident that Felix is slowly being blinded by his optimism, or in other words, his hope. In the beginning of the story while he is in the orphanage, he seems to never lose his hope that his parents will come back, and this can be seen as beneficial. However, later in the story, his hope becomes more unrealistic as he was almost shot by a Nazi and assumed that it was an accident. Similar to this, characters like Zelda undergo a similar evolution throughout the story from having good assumptions of people like the nazis to having harsher