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
One night, people break into the barbershop above the boys’ cellar. Uri pulls Misha out into the night, and they run until they find a bombed-out building and then go to sleep in the rubble. In the following days, the boys wander the streets, sleeping in various cold places and stealing food where they can—although their lifestyle is becoming more difficult. One day, Misha steals a loaf of bread from a lady, and she calls him a “dirty Jew.” When Misha corrects her, she starts calling him a “dirty Gypsy” instead and chases him down the street. Misha stomps on the woman’s bread and calls her “dirty bread lady” before running away.
As the war’s impact on Warsaw becomes heavier, Uri’s and Misha’s relatively carefree existence is disrupted too. They’re forced to fend for themselves amid more challenging circumstances than before. Misha also feels targeted for his supposed Roma identity for the first time. Even though Misha’s actual ethnicity is never completely certain, the point is that he genuinely identifies with it and feels the sting of another person’s bigotry.
Themes
The next day, Misha steals five loaves of bread—each time, he shouts his name at the person he steals from. Uri scolds him for stealing more than he needs and says that they’ll give the excess to the orphans. Uri explains that an “orphan” is a kid like the two of them, with no parents, but Misha reminds Uri that he isn’t an orphan. The boys then go to a big stone house and ring the bell. A bald, bearded man answers. Uri calls him “Doctor Korczak” and gives him the bread. With a smile, the man thanks them and shuts the door.
Misha wants to be seen as a real person, not just as a “thief” or a “Gypsy”—hence yelling his name at his victims. Misha also doesn’t identify himself as an orphan now that Uri has given him a background story. Even though he doesn’t have a family right now, he takes his imagined identity quite literally, another indication of his innocence. Meanwhile, Doctor Korczak is based on a historical figure, Janusz Korczak, an educator who established a famous orphans’ home in Warsaw.
Themes
The next day, Misha steals two loaves of bread and takes the extra to Janina’s house. He puts the bread on the back step, rings the bell, and runs. When he checks the next day, the bread is gone. “That,” Misha explains, “was how it started.”
As the situation in Warsaw grows more dire, Misha—inspired by Uri’s concern for the orphans—thinks of those he cares about. At this point, that is mainly his new friend Janina. His theft of bread for her lays the groundwork for the rest of the story, as such a gesture is likely to build a meaningful connection with Janina and her family.
Themes
