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Chapter 16
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
Uri and Misha’s stable is crowded with street kids— now that the city’s Jewish population has been moved to the ghetto, the orphans can’t blend into the crowds as easily. When Misha says he’s glad he isn’t a Jew, Enos laughs bitterly and points out that the ghetto is for “Gypsies,” too. One morning, the stable is invaded by Jackboots. They shoot one boy and march everybody else to the ghetto. The ghetto’s wall has been completed and is now topped with broken glass and barbed wire. Misha has never been kept out of a place before, and he takes this as a personal challenge.
Misha still has a simplistic and relatively innocent outlook on the Nazi occupation. He thinks that as long as he’s not Jewish, he’s safe—he doesn’t have a sense of the ideology underlying Nazi policies, which includes hatred of people in other minority categories, like so-called “Gypsies” (a term for the Roma people that’s now considered an ethnic slur). The street orphans, despite lacking official records, aren’t exempt from being forced into the ghetto.
Themes
When the boys are marched to the ghetto, Uri isn’t with them—he’s been missing a lot lately, sometimes for several days. Before he leaves, he always threatens Misha. Misha is actually careful to behave in Uri’s absence, feeling more free to act silly when Uri is around.
From now on, Uri appears in the story more intermittently without explanation—yet he retains an authoritative hold over Misha. Though Uri can be heavy-handed toward Misha, Misha continues to feel loved and protected by him.
Themes
Inside the ghetto, Misha runs to the Milgroms’ apartment. Janina’s parents aren’t home, since they both have to work jobs outside the ghetto walls. Janina and Misha run down to the street. To Misha, the ghetto looks similar to the main part of Warsaw—crowds of people, often selling things. They spot Olek and Jon, and Misha introduces them to Janina. Misha is surprised to hear himself introducing Janina as his sister. He doesn’t know why.
To Misha, moving into the ghetto isn’t a big deal. He still takes for granted that he can come and go as he pleases, and for now, life inside looks pretty similar to what he knew on the main streets of Warsaw. By introducing Janina to his orphan friends, Misha gets to connect these worlds. He feels an instinctive sibling bond with his new friend—perhaps a desire to lay claim to the family he’s never had before.
Themes
They spot a knot of children fighting over a potato, and Misha explains to Janina that those kids are “unlucky orphans” who roam the streets alone. Janina asks if Jon, whom she just met, is an unlucky orphan. Misha says he isn’t—“he’s a lucky one. He’s with us.”
Even as an orphan, Misha has recently found companionship, and even a sense of family, among other orphans. Those who lack such family are defenseless and must fend for themselves. In Misha’s eyes, even someone hopelessly sick, like Jon, is “lucky” by comparison.
Themes
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