Under a War-Torn Sky

Luck and hope form important motifs in the novel. Henry keeps in his pocket a marble that for him symbolizes good luck. He calls it a cloud, a “one-of-a-kind marble that glass-blowers made from leftover glass” (17). Floating under the surface are “swirls of red and gold” (17). He won the marble in a game with his father, so it symbolizes for him his independence from that harsh figure. It showed that he could survive in spite of his father’s emotional abuse. Henry keeps the marble with him until he decides to give it to Pierre at the time of their parting.

Just a few days after he is shot down, Henry wakes in the bell tower of the schoolhouse where the schoolteacher has offered him shelter, and in the early morning light he sees the fluttering wings of a stork. The spreading white wings, backlit by a halo of light, make the still-awakening airman think it is an angel. When the schoolteacher sees it, he says it must be a good omen, since the stork used to migrate from Africa to nest in his chimney every year, but he has not seen it for two years. He says it as a symbol of hope that it is the beginning of the end for the Nazis—a hope that will be proved correct.