Milkweed

by

Jerry Spinelli

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Themes and Colors
Identity and Relationships Theme Icon
War, Dehumanization, and Innocence Theme Icon
Ingenuity, Resilience, and Survival Theme Icon
Family Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Milkweed, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
War, Dehumanization, and Innocence Theme Icon

In Milkweed, Spinelli doesn’t shrink from highlighting the Nazis’ brutal anti-Semitism during the regime’s occupation of Poland in World War II. There are numerous examples of characters being bullied, tortured, or killed just because they are Jewish. Misha Pilsudski is an outsider to the Jewish community, but even as a small boy, he witnesses brutality firsthand, shares in communal suffering, and shows a willingness to follow his friends even unto death. Through all this, he retains a spirit of innocence that contrasts with the Nazi regime’s efforts to dehumanize people. Through this contrast, Spinelli argues that innocence, though it may not emerge from suffering unscathed, is an enduring sign of the power of human love—and it’s ultimately stronger than the forces of dehumanization and oppression.

Dehumanization is the key to the Nazis’ oppression of Warsaw’s Jewish community. When Misha befriends a gang of other street orphans, they ask him if he’s Jewish. Misha doesn’t know what that means, so one of the boys informs him: “He pointed to himself. ‘This is a Jew.’ He pointed to the others. […] He pointed to the horse. ‘That's a Jew.’ He fell to his knees and scrabbled in the straw near the horse flop. He found something. He held it out to me. It was a small brown insect.” The boy parrots the message his society has given him—that Jewish people aren’t fully human and are worthless and dispensable. He’s trying to convey to Misha, who’s ignorant of all such prejudices, that Jewish people aren’t welcome in the world they inhabit. After a horse is stolen from the city’s carousel, the occupying Nazis grab a Jewish man (whom they view as “interchangeable” with all other Jews) to serve as a scapegoat. Misha watches as the Nazis torment the man by tying him up and spraying him with frigid water. From this episode, Misha learns how dehumanizing the Nazis’ treatment of Jewish people really is. They’re simply looking for an excuse to terrorize people by making an example out of one of their neighbors—sending the dehumanizing message that any of them can be tortured and killed, with no justification, at any time.

Misha’s innocence contrasts starkly with this dehumanizing regime, both shielding him from it and also exemplifying how love can endure even in the face of hatred. When the Nazis march into Warsaw for the first time, Misha thinks it’s an exciting parade and outruns everyone else to get the best view. “I looked at the faces of the crowd. No one was cheering, or even smiling. I was surprised. Weren't they thrilled by the spectacle before them?” In this instance, Misha’s innocence about the Nazi regime (naïvely assuming that the Nazis are part of a parade) spares him the terror of what’s unfolding before his eyes, giving him resilience. However, Spinelli’s portrayal of Misha’s innocence isn’t completely naïve. When the entire community is forced to stand at attention in the cold all night, it’s suggested that people like Misha can be manipulated because of their innocence: “It was easy to tell the people who had not fallen: they were the ones with the highest piles of snow on their shoulders and heads. I could now feel the faint weight of the snow on my head. I wondered how it looked. I took even more pains not to move. I didn't want my snow to fall off.” On one hand, Misha is somewhat protected from the humiliation the Nazis intend to inflict, because he treats the experience as a kind of innocent game—holding still enough to  accumulate snow. At the same time, his competitive mindset shows how ordeals like this one had another sinister layer—quietly turning those who can successfully comply against those who can’t. In other words, innocence might be a survival strategy for Misha, but it also has its limitations, as he can be manipulated and subtly dehumanized as a result.

However, life under Nazi rule never steals Misha’s innocence entirely. After he misses the train for the camps, he wanders into the Polish countryside and is eventually taken in by a farmer. When the farmer asks if Misha is Jewish, he says yes—that he’s following the train in hopes of finding “the ovens.” The irony is that Misha isn’t Jewish, but he identifies so strongly with his adoptive Jewish family and the community he’s lived with that reuniting with them is all he cares about. Part of this is Misha’s childish innocence—he doesn’t know what the rumored “ovens” really are, and he doesn’t know the terrible fate of those sent to the camps—but given that Misha has faithfully risked his life for years to smuggle food to the Milgroms and his other friends, it’s believable that he really would follow them to imprisonment and death. His innocence, then, is really a sign of his undaunted love.

When Misha immigrates to the United States after the war, he struggles with difficult memories and adapting to social norms. He copes with these things by compulsively telling his stories to whomever will listen—and even to those who won’t: “The important thing was not that you listened, but that I talked. […] I was born into craziness. When the whole world turned crazy, I was ready for it. That's how I survived. And when the craziness was over, where did that leave me? On the street corner, that's where, running my mouth, spilling myself. And I needed you there.” In a way, it seems like Misha’s innocence is lost as a result of what he lost during the war (like the Milgroms). But he refuses to let go of his humanity, even if it means telling his story in ways that seem “crazy” to onlookers and that make others uncomfortable. By passing along his stories of childhood innocence, Misha continues resisting the dehumanizing forces of war for as long as he can.

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War, Dehumanization, and Innocence Quotes in Milkweed

Below you will find the important quotes in Milkweed related to the theme of War, Dehumanization, and Innocence.
Chapter 2 Quotes

More thumping sounds in the distance. "What is that?" I asked him.

“Jackboot artillery," he said.

"What's artillery?"

"Big guns. Boom boom. They're shelling the city." He stared at me. “Who are you?"

I didn't understand the question.

"I'm Uri," he said. “What's your name?”

I gave him my name. "Stopthief."

Related Characters: Stopthief / Misha Pilsudski (speaker), Uri (speaker)
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

[One boy] kicked ground straw at a boy who hadn't spoken. […] "That's a Jew." He pointed to himself. "This is a Jew." He pointed to the others. "That's a Jew. That's a Jew. That's a Jew." He pointed to the horse. "That's a Jew." He fell to his knees and scrabbled in the straw near the horse flop. He found something. He held it out to me. It was a small brown insect. "This is a Jew. Look. Look!" He startled me.

Related Characters: Stopthief / Misha Pilsudski (speaker), Uri
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

I had never seen him so mad. His hair looked redder than ever, only this time it was not because he was laughing. He punched me in the forehead. The back of my head banged against the wall. "Someday I'm going to have to kill you to keep you alive." He flapped his arm. "You want to do it your way? You want to go off by yourself? Not listen to me? Go ahead!" He kicked me. "Go ahead!" He stomped off. By the time he reached the street, I was at his side.

Related Characters: Stopthief / Misha Pilsudski (speaker), Uri (speaker)
Page Number: 59
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

I couldn't believe my eyes: one of the horses was gone!

Only three hooves remained. […] A scrap of surviving color told me the horse had been black. It was mine. My beautiful black-and-golden horse.

"Find the Jew!" people were calling. As I stared at the three horseless hooves, I felt my own anger rising. "Find the dirty Jew!" the voices called over and over, and I think one of the voices I heard was mine.

Related Characters: Stopthief / Misha Pilsudski (speaker)
Page Number: 66
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

Janina looked at me. “What happened?”

“Unlucky orphans,” I said. I told her that was what Enos called them—orphans who did not live in Doctor Korczak's home, or any other, and who roamed the streets hungry and begging and sick.

“Be glad we're not unlucky orphans,” I told her.

“Is gray Jon an unlucky orphan?” she said.

“Oh no,” I said. “He's a lucky one. He's with us.”

Related Characters: Stopthief / Misha Pilsudski (speaker), Janina Milgrom (speaker), Doctor Korczak, Enos, Jon
Page Number: 84
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

The soldiers screamed. With my new armband, I thought: I am Jew now. A filthy son of Abraham. They're screaming at me. I am somebody. I tried to listen well, to hear what they were screaming, but I could not understand much beyond “dirty” and “filthy” and “Jew.”

Related Characters: Stopthief / Misha Pilsudski (speaker), Mr. Tobiasz Milgrom
Page Number: 95
Explanation and Analysis:

The screaming never stopped. By now people were falling all over the courtyard, falling and staggering to their feet and falling again. It was easy to tell the people who had not fallen: they were the ones with the highest piles of snow on their shoulders and heads. I could now feel the faint weight of the snow on my head. I wondered how it looked. I took even more pains not to move. I didn't want my snow to fall off.

Related Characters: Stopthief / Misha Pilsudski (speaker)
Page Number: 98
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30 Quotes

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.

Related Characters: Stopthief / Misha Pilsudski (speaker), Janina Milgrom (speaker)
Related Symbols: Angels, Milkweed
Page Number: 143
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 34 Quotes

Now it was Hanukkah time again […] On the first day Mr. Milgrom told me the story of Hanukkah. How long ago the Greeks tried to destroy everything Jewish. ("See, this is not the first time.") How the Jews were outnumbered and had no chance against the Greeks but beat them anyway. How the Jews celebrated by lighting an oil lamp. But the celebration would have to be short because there was only enough oil to last for one day. And then a miracle happened. The oil lasted for eight days.

Related Characters: Stopthief / Misha Pilsudski (speaker), Mr. Tobiasz Milgrom (speaker)
Page Number: 157
Explanation and Analysis:

“And so Hanukkah is eight days when we remember that time, and we remember to be happy and proud to be Jews and that we will always survive. This is our time. We celebrate ourselves. We must be happy now. We must never forget how to be happy. Never forget."

Related Characters: Mr. Tobiasz Milgrom (speaker), Stopthief / Misha Pilsudski
Page Number: 157
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 39 Quotes

Then I saw her. […] She was a shadow cut loose, held above the other shadows by a pair of Jackboot arms. She was thrashing and screaming above the silent masses. […] And then the arms came forward and she was flying, Janina was flying over the shadow heads and the dogs and soldiers, her arms and legs turning slowly. She seemed so light, so right for the air […] I thought she would sail forever like a milkweed puff on an endless breeze, and I was running and wishing I could fly with her, and then she was gone, swallowed by the black maw of the boxcar[.]

Related Characters: Stopthief / Misha Pilsudski (speaker), Janina Milgrom
Related Symbols: Milkweed
Page Number: 185
Explanation and Analysis:

The Jackboot flung me against a wall. I saw his hand go to his holster. I saw the gun come out and point between my eyes. "Die, piglet!" The voice. I looked up. The red hair. The face. “Uri!" I cried, and the gun went off.

Related Characters: Stopthief / Misha Pilsudski (speaker), Uri
Page Number: 186
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 42 Quotes

The man placed his foot on my chest. "You're a Jew," he said.

"Yes," I answered. I pointed to my armband. "See?"

“What are you doing here?"

"I'm following the train. Janina. I'm going to the ovens."

"What ovens?"

"The ovens for the Jews. I'm a filthy son of Abraham. They forgot me. Can you take me to the ovens?"

The man spit in the weeds. "I don't know what you're talking about. You make no sense. Are you insane?"

Related Characters: Stopthief / Misha Pilsudski (speaker), The farmer (speaker), Janina Milgrom, Uri
Page Number: 192
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 44 Quotes

You were the thing that gave me shape. "But I wasn't even listening," you say. "I don't even remember you." Don't feel bad. The important thing was not that you listened, but that I talked. I can see that now. I was born into craziness. When the whole world turned crazy, I was ready for it. That's how I survived. And when the craziness was over, where did that leave me? On the street comer, that's where, running my mouth, spilling myself. And I needed you there. You were the bottle I poured myself into.

Related Characters: Stopthief / Misha Pilsudski (speaker)
Page Number: 203
Explanation and Analysis: