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
When they get home, Uncle Shepsel is dancing in the courtyard, saying the Russians are going to save them. Nobody else is celebrating. In the Milgroms’ room, new ghetto residents have arrived, needing space. Mr. Milgrom lets them have the mattress. Meanwhile, Misha joins the orphan boys outside, where Enos is laughing as he stands on a pile of rubble. After everything that’s been done to the Jews, he says, it’s hilarious that they’re getting bombed now, too. Nobody else laughs, though.
The ghetto is becoming more and more crowded, with no space for people to live full, dignified lives. People react in different ways to the mounting bleakness of the situation—some, like Uncle Shepsel, by denying it, and some, like Enos, by accepting it with a kind of bitter humor.
Themes
Conditions in the ghetto are growing worse: there are more orphans, roaming the streets and begging, but there’s no food to give them. One day, Misha sees a Jackboot and his girlfriend tossing pieces of bread into the snow and laughing as people desperately pounce on the bread.
The Jackboots are indifferent to the suffering they inflict. In this case, they see their victims’ hunger as a source of entertainment; they’ve long ceased to view them as human beings worthy of dignity and care.
Themes
Seven new people are crammed into the Milgroms’ tiny apartment now, including twin little boys. The adults don’t speak to Misha or Janina, but the little boys play with them. Janina is kind to them in return, leaving them pieces of food at night. One day, someone inexplicably throws cabbages, potatoes, and sausages over the ghetto wall. This happens several nights in a row, and each time, Misha and Janina joyfully collect a feast to bring home. But the flying food eventually stops.
Janina, despite her frequently spoiled attitude, is also capable of acts of kindness, as her treatment of the children shows. And life in the ghetto is marked by occasional, unexplained mercies like the appearance of food from the city beyond. Such things are never explained; they’re just accepted and celebrated.
Themes
One day, the mysterious, sought-after cow appears in the ghetto—but it’s galloping across a balcony while a laughing Jackboot attacks it with a flamethrower. The flaming cow finally sails off the balcony and lands in the courtyard. Moments later, it’s mobbed by people.
The rumored cow finally appears, but in a wanton demonstration of cruelty, Nazi soldiers torment it—a symbolic act of crushing people’s hopes.
Themes
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