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Chapter 7
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
When Misha returns to the backyard garden, the little girl is not there. Instead, he finds pieces of paper marked with arrows. He follows the arrows and digs up a wrapped chocolate candy. When he finishes eating it, the little girl is sitting on the step—she planted the piece of candy. Misha introduces himself and tells her about his family. The girl tells Misha it isn’t nice to steal; Misha is fascinated by her shiny black shoes.
Misha soon has an opportunity to share his new name and story, seeking out the little girl whose attention had captivated him the other day. The little girl has apparently been waiting for him. She comes from a different world where stealing is simply regarded as not “nice” because it’s unnecessary—establishing a stark contrast not just between her and Misha’s lives.
Themes
Misha asks the girl if she’s Jewish. She holds a finger to her lips and whispers that she is, but she isn’t supposed to tell. She asks Misha how old he is, but he doesn’t know. The girl stands in front of him and tries to guess Misha’s age from their respective heights. She’s turning seven tomorrow, so she guesses that Misha must be eight. She invites him to her birthday party the next day.
In her innocent way, the little girl signals that being Jewish is dangerous in this setting. Misha’s lack of awareness of his background (he doesn’t even know how old he is) doesn’t stop the girl from finding a way to establish a friendship between the two of them.
Themes
When Misha returns the next day, the little girl angrily tells him that he’s late—she refused to start the party without him. She pulls him inside, to a table laden with food and a beautiful cake. When a man lights the birthday candles, Misha is horrified. He blows out the candles, grabs the cake, and runs from the house. When he gets home and tells Uri, Uri laughs hysterically. He explains what birthday cakes are, and then the two of them split the crumbled cake. Uri tells Misha that its icing says, “Happy Birthday, Janina.”
Unfamiliar with social norms, Misha doesn’t understand what a birthday party involves—his instinctive theft of the cake being the clearest and funniest example of this. Misha’s unfamiliarity with things like parties stems from his lifelong preoccupation with bare survival—as a street orphan, he’s had no reason (or opportunity) to concern himself with the things other kids care about.
Themes
The next day Misha steals a beautiful cake from a bakery. He places it on the back steps of Janina’s house, lights the candles, knocks, and runs.
Misha’s gift of a cake (albeit stolen) is the story’s first example of his generous character. Despite his previous moniker of Stopthief, that stealing is just a necessary means of survival for Misha rather than something he wants to do out of selfishness. He clearly cares about his budding friendship with Janina and wants to set things right.
Themes
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Wandering the city later that day, Misha sees men carrying torches and thinks at first of birthday candles. In the window of the bakery he stole from, men are painting a big yellow star. When the owner comes outside, the men with the paint restrain him, taking off his clothes and painting him from head to toe with white and yellow paint while he struggles. The men with the paint all laugh and then send the man back inside. Misha sees the windows of other shops being shattered and another man tied to the back of a wandering horse.
Standing in stark contrast to the kindness and innocence of the birthday cake episode, Misha witnesses firsthand the cruelties of the Nazi occupation against the Jewish people of Warsaw. The Nazis are pointedly shaming and humiliating people and destroying their livelihoods, simply because of their Jewish identity. In his innocent mindset, Misha struggles to make sense of this brutality.
Themes
The next morning, Misha and Uri go outside and see Jewish shop owners repainting their windows, labeling their shops with the word “Jew.” Misha says that he’s glad he isn’t a Jew, but Uri tells him, “Don’t be too glad.”
Misha’s reaction to the frightening new world unfolding around him is simply to be glad that he isn’t one of its targets—but Uri hints that this might not be the case for long. Uri’s words also suggest that happiness over being “not Jewish” could eventually progress into anti-Jewish sentiments.
Themes
