Previous
Chapter 1
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
Someone with red hair is dragging Stopthief while running. Sirens are screaming. The redhead warns Stopthief that soon, he’ll have to worry about being chased by “Jackboots,” not by ladies. He pulls a loaf of bread out of Stopthief’s shirt and splits it, handing half over. He’d been about to steal this bread from the same lady, he says.
The identity of Stopthief’s rescuer is unclear, except that the redhead is a fellow thief, and he seems to be savvier than Stopthief. “Jackboots” is a nickname for Nazi soldiers, a reference to their knee-high boots and an allusion to the soldiers’ authoritarian behavior—establishing the story’s World War II setting.
Themes
