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 hears a little girl screaming, “Poppynoodle!” He goes to see what she’s doing this time. As Misha’s granddaughter performs an awkward headstand, he thinks of Janina.
The story makes a surprising transition from loneliness to a newfound relationship. The past and present join as Misha’s memories collide with his present.
Themes
Some time ago, Misha was stocking shelves in a Bag ‘n Go market when a young woman approached him. She was holding the hand of a little girl. The woman said, “Daddy?” She introduced herself as his daughter, Katherine, and the little girl as his granddaughter, Wendy. Katherine has been searching for him forever. Wendy shakes Misha’s hand.
Misha describes the background that led to his reunion with his granddaughter. It turns out he was correct in his suspicion that Vivian had been pregnant. After searching for family all his life, his own family improbably seeks him out.
Themes
Radiant, Katherine tells Misha that she’s been saving something for him: she left Wendy’s middle name blank on purpose because she wants Misha to give her one. Without even stopping to think, Misha says, “Janina.” Katherine invites him to live with her and Wendy, so Misha drops his apron in the aisle and goes home with them.
Misha’s memory of Janina joins with the present joy of his newfound granddaughter, suggesting that the family formed through shared suffering in the ghetto is, in its own way, just as real and important as the biological family he’s formed in America. Wendy Janina is the living link.
Themes
Misha watches Wendy swing in the backyard. It’s autumn, and the milkweed pods are bursting, though the plant doesn’t change colors. One day, Misha asked Katherine to drive him out of town—he’d found some milkweed, the “angel plant,” and taken it home to plant in a corner of their yard. Katherine doesn’t ask any questions. Misha keeps Janina’s story secret, too. He’ll tell them someday.
Though Misha has never hesitated to tell his story, he refrains from sharing Janina’s. In a way, telling Janina’s story is a way of admitting its end. He prefers to focus on ways in which Janina lives on—through the evergreen milkweed plant, and through his lively granddaughter.
Themes
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Wendy Janina wears herself out on the swing and climbs into Misha’s lap on the rocking chair. He rocks and smiles, thinking of all the names he’s had and the voices that gave them. He’s been thief, “stupid,” “Gypsy,” “Jew,” “one-eared Jack.” He’s been named by his victims, by Uri, by an immigration officer. But now, a little girl’s voice has quieted the voices of Jackboots in his mind, and her voice will be the last. Now, he is Poppynoodle.
All his life, Misha’s identity has been governed by others. Each of these names and identities had a degree of plausibility to it; they each captured aspects of himself and his story. Now, Wendy Janina gives him a name, too. But Wendy Janina love gives him peace as nothing else does, as her life sums up his own story, symbolizes a piece of Janina’s survival, and suggests that childlike innocence can survive in spite of tragedy.
Themes
