Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Milkweed, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Relationships
War, Dehumanization, and Innocence
Ingenuity, Resilience, and Survival
Family
Summary
Analysis
Misha tries to steal a loaf of bread for Janina every day. Janina starts leaving him small gifts in exchange—like a piece of candy or, one day, a tiny glass dog. After he receives the dog, Misha doubles back to Janina’s house to speak to her. When he gets there, he finds a tall boy stuffing the bread into his coat. Misha chases him through the city, yelling, “Stop! Thief!” Finally, the boy turns and punches Misha, sending him into the gutter. Both the glass dog and one of Misha’s teeth are broken. At home, as Uri tends Misha’s wounds, he scolds him for fighting instead of running.
When Misha’s stolen bread for Janina is stolen in turn, there’s a striking role reversal—he finds himself in the role of a victimized accuser instead of the one who’s pursued and accused. This is because Misha has never been in a position to be stolen from before—and in this case, it’s not himself he’s concerned about, but his friend, again showing his caring nature. Uri, however, is concerned that Misha’s defensiveness will be an obstacle to his ability to survive.
Themes
The next time Misha goes to Janina’s house, it’s night. After he drops off the bread and starts walking down the street, he hears a pop, sees a flash of light, and feels something hit his ear—he realizes that somebody is shooting at him. When he gets home, crying, Uri says that Misha’s earlobe has been shot off. A Jackboot shot him, Uri explains, because Misha was out after curfew. He smacks Misha for going out at night. To show Uri that he understands, Misha smacks himself too.
Warsaw is fast becoming a more dangerous place—even for children. The fact that conditions in the city have so quickly deteriorated, such that even children are being shot for defying curfew, foreshadows how much worse things will become. Meanwhile, Misha is loyal to Uri and completely trusting of him—having no memory of a parental figure’s care, he doesn’t question Uri’s sometimes harsh treatment of him.
Themes
The next day, Uri ties a rope around Misha’s wrist to teach him a lesson. When they meet the other orphan boys hanging out in a cemetery, they mock Misha good-naturedly. Then, they all smoke cigarettes—it’s Misha’s first. Pretty soon they’re all wrestling, partly just to keep warm.
Uri humiliates Misha in front of the other orphan boys for running away, another example of his rather tough way of demonstrating love. Again, Misha doesn’t resist it, indicating the sense of familial loyalty that he feels for Uri.
Themes
Eventually, during a game of hide-and-seek, the boys see a tombstone decorated with a big stone angel. Misha has never seen an angel before. Enos says that there’s no such thing as angels; Olek says they’re real, but they’re invisible. They help people in trouble, he explains. Enos snorts at this idea and asks where the angels were when Olek got pushed in front of a train and lost his arm. Or why don’t the angels give Big Henryk shoes? Or spare Jon from dying? Enos spits on the angel statue. Before they can finish this discussion, the kids are kicked out of the cemetery by a funeral procession.
Angel imagery is introduced as a symbol of hope transcending the darkness of everyday existence. However, the symbol is an ambivalent one. The orphan boys have suffered a variety of terrible experiences: dismemberment, deprivation, and illness, not to mention the daily reality of being homeless orphans. It’s often difficult to reconcile these sufferings with the hope of something better, like the existence of protective, caring beings. Most of the boys have seldom known protection and care in their own lives.
Themes
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That night, Misha asks Uri if Enos is right about angels. Uri says it’s up to Misha—he’s free to believe what he wants. Misha asks Uri if he believes in angels, but Uri just says that he believes in bread.
Uri just believes in filling his stomach, suggesting that he’s primarily concerned with day-to-day survival rather than the afterlife. Importantly, though, he doesn’t tell Misha what to believe, suggesting that determining one’s beliefs is an element of personal identity.
Themes
