Red Balloon

The red balloon throughout the poem is a symbol of religion, the non Jews of this poem believe it to be "stained with our dear Lord's blood", but I think that the balloon stands as a symbol for the blood lost in the Jewish race, and the strength it endured as "it would not burst" suggesting it is somewhat unstoppable.
As the persona has this balloon enter his life as it "oddly" landed where he stood, he passed onto it life, but "breathing on it " and "polished" it, thus giving a red that "shone like living blood". This foreshadowing the interpretation of the symbol of the "Lord's blood", but it could also be the persona's blood, as if he brought it to life, it could have his life captured within it.
It attracted attention, the persona's emotions mixed towards the balloon, but with maturity "it ceased to be a toy" thus showing that its not something he can play with, it's something he must treasure and look after. The persona later on starts to refers it as a "precious" where it is now something of great value to him, where it's so important that the persona "to no one dare show it" but in contrast will boast about it.
The ignorance and mockery shown within the conversation between the persona and the 'best friend', degrade the balloon to label of "Jew" with the persona defending the relevance to that. The final stanza shows the attempts to destroy the balloon, "their dirty knives" "lunged" "clawed" at the balloon, but it wouldn't burst. You could relate this to some previous events that have happened in the Jewish history, for example, the holocaust, the Jewish race were discrimated, persecuted against by an entire country, they were killed, tortured in the attempt to wipe the race out, but the outcome of it all? It didn't happen, where the strength of them carried on to live after all they had been through, their "living blood" kept pumping through their race.