What is the significance of "half past two" in Wolfgang Borchert's The Clock and The Bread?

Question

In both *The Clock* and *The Bread* by Wolfgang Borchert there is a mention of the events happening at "half past two" in the morning. I have been unable to find a historical event of World War Two that specifically coincided with this time, and was wondering what the significance might be. Excerpts from *The Clock*: > The most wonderful thing is still to come: Just think, it stopped at half past two. Of all times at half past two, just think. and > No. At half past two there was something quite different, only you don't know what. That's the joke, of course, that it stopped just at half past two. And not at a quarter past four or at seven. For at half past two I always used to come home. At night, I mean. Nearly always at half past two. Excerpts from *The Bread*: > Suddenly she woke up. It was half past two. and > They stood facing one another in their night-shirts. At night. At half past two. In the kitchen. If it were just in one story, I wouldn't have thought it significant. The presence in both stories has sparked my curiosity though.

Answer 1

I believe you're looking for symbolism here and not a literal WWII connection. In "The Clock," the young man with the old face thinks that the kitchen clock stopping at 2:30 a.m. is symbolic because he always came home at 2:30 a.m. and his mother always fixed him something to eat, saying the same words to him every night. What once was commonplace has become "paradise" (his word) in his mind now that the bomb has taken away everything and everyone he once knew.

In "The Bread" the husband wakes at 2:30 a.m., goes to the kitchen, and secretly takes a slice of bread. A slice of bread to modern eyes is nothing, but in Germany right after WWII, bread is rationed, and is a precious commodity. The wife knows he did this, and the husband knows she knows, but they each hide "the lie" so the other won't suffer.

Now it's your turn: for bonus points, talk about the three terms, "Kitchen", "Plate," and "Bread" in the two stories.