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Chapter 1
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
Someone with red hair is dragging Stopthief while running. Sirens are screaming. The redhead warns Stopthief that soon, he’ll have to worry about being chased by “Jackboots,” not by ladies. He pulls a loaf of bread out of Stopthief’s shirt and splits it, handing half over. He’d been about to steal this bread from the same lady, he says.
The identity of Stopthief’s rescuer is unclear, except that the redhead is a fellow thief, and he seems to be savvier than Stopthief. “Jackboots” is a nickname for Nazi soldiers, a reference to their knee-high boots and an allusion to the soldiers’ authoritarian behavior—establishing the story’s World War II setting.
Themes
There are thumping sounds in the distance. When Stopthief asks what the sounds are, his new friend explains that it’s “Jackboot artillery,” big guns shelling Warsaw. He identifies himself as Uri and asks Stopthief’s name, but Stopthief doesn’t understand the question at first.
The story is set just before the German invasion of Warsaw, Poland in September 1939. Stopthief seems to be oblivious to these events, suggesting that he’s naïve about recent political developments. In fact, he doesn’t even seem to have much of a sense of personal identity, acting puzzled when Uri asks his name. Others see him only as a thief, and that’s how he thinks of himself too.
Themes
