Angels symbolize belief in the goodness and persistence of the human spirit, despite evidence of cruelty and suffering. At first, angels are an ambivalent image: when the street orphan gang sees an angel statue in a cemetery, Olek explains to Misha that angels are invisible beings that help people in trouble, but Enos mocks this idea. He spits on the statue, asking why the angels didn’t stop Olek from losing his arm in an accident, or why they don’t spare Jon from dying. Misha wonders about the nature and existence of angels throughout the story. He decides he believes in them, eventually associating them with delicate puffs of milkweed that sail on the breeze, and implicitly with his beloved sister Janina (after she is taken from the ghetto on a deportation train). The problem of cruelty is never resolved, but the persistence of angel imagery suggests that even the Nazis’ worst cruelty can’t stamp out hope.
Angels Quotes in Milkweed
She stood on tiptoes and held it as high as she could and let it go. It sailed toward the sky.
"That's my angel," she said.
Then they were all around us, milkweed puffs, flying. I picked one from her hair. I pointed. "Look." A milkweed plant was growing by a heap of rubble.
It was thrilling just to see a plant, a spot of green in the ghetto desert. The bird-shaped pods had burst and the puffs were spilling out, flying off. I cracked a pod from the stem and blew into the silk-lined hollow, sending the remaining puffs sailing, a snowy shower rising, vanishing into the clouds.
Angels Symbol Timeline in Milkweed
