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Chapter 20
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 day, Jon dies. The other orphan boys stand around his body, debating what to do with his shoes. Uri says they should be given to Big Henryk, who has never worn shoes, just coin bags. He puts Jon’s shoes on Big Henryk and twists the boy’s ears until he promises to keep wearing the shoes. As they walk away, Misha asks if an angel will take Jon’s body. Enos sarcastically says that the angel is coming right now—a skinny horse is pulling a wagon down the street with two men. The men grab Jon’s body and toss it onto the wagon.
After surviving on the streets for so long, witnessing death, and living without shoes, the boys almost take Jon’s long-expected death in stride—the biggest debate is how to dispose of his shoes. But Misha finally sees what happens to the dead bodies often left on the ghetto’s streets—his innocent imagination must give way to reality in this case.
Themes
As the kids walk down the street, making jokes about heaven, a Flop starts bothering them. Flops are Jewish guards hired by the Nazis; they carry whistles and long clubs. This Flop yells at the kids about their lack of armbands. The boys scatter, but Big Henryk gets caught. Then, Uri grabs the Flop from behind and hits him with his own club, sending him wobbling. The kids find this hilarious and take turns hitting themselves in the head with the Flop’s club until they wobble, too. Then they strip off the Flop’s clothing and send him flying into a puddle.
The orphan kids find their own ways of surviving by letting off steam in the ghetto, even by provoking and abusing one of the Flops, who would be seen as traitors against their fellow Jews and therefore contemptible.
Themes
