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
As time goes on, food becomes scarcer. Soon, Misha has trouble finding bread to snatch from people on the streets. Shops aren’t much better, so Misha starts stealing from homes. He learns that he can often sneak into a fancy house on the heels of an unwary child because often, little kids just assume he belongs there. Thanks to his quick instincts, he once manages to steal a roast turkey from a dinner table before anyone can stop him.
Soon, people also begin running out of coal. Uri steals a sack of coal one day and takes it to Doctor Korczak’s orphans, calling it “black pearls.” The next day, Misha goes scrounging for coal too. When he finally collects a full sack—getting caked with coal dust in the process—he brings it to the orphanage. Laughing, Doctor Korczak makes him come inside for a bath and gives him a new set of clothes.
Misha’s capacity to care for other people is also developing, as he goes out of his way to help those who aren’t in a position to help themselves. At first copying Uri, he also begins establishing his own relationship with Doctor Korczak and the orphans.
Themes
Doctor Korczak asks Misha his name and where he lives. When he asks Misha whether he’s an orphan, Misha assures him that he isn’t. He tells Doctor Korczak about his family, repeating the whole story Uri gave him. Before Misha leaves, Doctor Korczak has all the orphans thank him in unison. Misha, uncomfortable, doesn’t know what to say.
Misha’s personal identity continues to be bound up with the fictional identity Uri gave him, even to the extent that he denies something about himself that’s undeniably true (that he’s an orphan). For now, in other words, reality and imagination are somewhat conflated in Misha’s mind.
Themes
