114 pages • 3 hours read
Milkweed
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BetaChapters 19-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary
In Chapter 19, the dynamics between the boys are delved into in greater detail. After being forced into the ghetto, the group of boys sleep in rubble under a braided rug, huddled against each other for warmth. While Misha usually sleeps next to Uri when the older boy is there, Uri’s presence has been few and far between. The boys often speak of mothers and oranges. While some of the boys believe in mothers, Ferdi does not believe that they exist, saying, “real mothers don’t die” (70). Likewise, the boys also speak of oranges in equally-disbelieving terms.
With none of the required documents or armbands, the boys are a target for the ghetto police, otherwise known as the “Flops” (70). Ferdi, Misha, and the other boys frequently debate the existence of things and with their own lack of documentation, Ferdi says that they are the ones who do not exist. With the onset of winter and their arrival into the ghetto, food is scarce.
Uri returns to the boys with food sometimes. He tells the others that the Jackboots are starving the people in the ghetto on purpose. Misha watches as vendors on the street try to sell any scrap of food they can find, from bones and fat to charred and roasted animals. As Misha walks with Enos on Gesia Street, the boys steal from the vendors. Squirrel meat is a staple on the street, though it is common knowledge that the alleged squirrels are actually rats.
One day, Misha snatches two rats. He eats one himself and brings the other to the Milgroms. Only Janina and Uncle Shepsel are there. Shepsel mocks Misha for believing that the rats are squirrels. Janina remains convinced that they are rats and resolves to save the meat for her mother. Uncle Shepsel and Janina both yank on each side of the rat, fighting for the piece of meat before it breaks in two. Uncle Shepsel devours his part of the rat despite his previous complaints. When Mr. Milgrom returns home, he declines the offer of the rat, saying, “no…not yet” (73). Uncle Shepsel then devours the other half.
That night, Misha searches desperately for a way to leave the ghetto and find food on the other side. He finds a small space, two bricks wide, and squeezes through the tiny gap.
Chapter 20 Summary
Misha is only able to find a jar of pickled herring. He sneaks back into the ghetto and shares his findings with the Milgroms, hiding the chunks of fish in his pants. After they finish eating, they hear people shouting for tenants to leave the building. Mr. Milgrom stops Misha from opening the door and passes the boy a blue-and-white armband that he’s gotten for him. As the family makes their way downstairs, they hear Jackboots screaming slurs at the Jews.
Mr. Milgrom tells Misha to “stand straight” and “look healthy” (75). Misha tries his best to stand straight, observing the world and people around him. Misha notices the woman in front of him and resolves to stand straighter, at attention, as he sees the way she is tortured and hit for her disobedience. Misha eventually notices that all the people gathered in the courtyard are soiling themselves, the smell becoming more and more pronounced. Misha is unable to help it and he soon soils himself as well, though he is proud that he manages to still remain at attention.
The screaming continues in the courtyard and Misha imagines himself as the stone angel, standing still and tall. He eventually collapses, and Janina and Mr. Milgrom are quick to help him to his feet, telling him to bend his knees as he stands. The Jackboots finally let everyone go and there is a stampede to the buildings’ bathrooms. Misha heads back to the room with the Milgroms and falls asleep on their floor. Though Uncle Shepsel insists that Misha is not family, Mr. Milgrom says otherwise.
Chapter 21 Summary
Chapter 21 begins with the boys finding Jon’s body under a newspaper on the street. The boys recognize him by his shoes and though they are initially unsure what to do with the deceased boy’s footwear, Uri appears and tells them to give the pair of shoes to Big Henryk. Big Henryk does not like shoes, however, and wears bank coin bags on his feet. Though Big Henryk throws a tantrum about wearing shoes, Uri disciplines him by twisting his ears, and eventually, gets him to wear the shoes.
The boys watch as Jon’s body is taken away on a cart pulled by an emaciated horse and piled with corpses. The boys speak about heaven and argue about what happens there. Big Henryk walks loudly in his new shoes, splashing other passersby with slush and snow. The boys are then approached by a Flop, who yells at them to wear their armbands. The boys scatter but Big Henryk is unable to escape in his new shoes.
Flops are Jewish people who have been assigned to guard and police the population in the ghetto. They carry only a whistle and a wooden club and dress in ill-fitting uniforms. They also have to wear their armbands. The Flop screams at Big Henryk, waving the club in the boy’s face. Uri comes to Big Henryk’s rescue and soon all the boys are taking turns bopping the Flop on the head with the club, and then hitting themselves. The boys strip the Flop of his clothes and shoes and passersby on the street make to steal them. Uri is drawing attention to himself the way that he has so often advised against, but Misha is having too much fun to comment on it. The boys throw the Flop into an alley and discard his club, leaving him in pain, in the snow.
Chapters 19-21 Analysis
The ghetto is painted not as the safe place Janina once imagined, but something closer, instead, to a cage. In this section of the novel, families and members of the same group are forced to turn on each other to survive. This is made most apparent in Spinelli’s portrayal of a “Flop,” a Jew turned Jackboot aide, forced to police and control the population within the ghetto. Food becomes a prime motivator for everyone and Misha learns that people are willing to do anything to survive. The character of Uncle Shepsel demonstrates this betrayal in Chapter 19, when he first attempts to manipulate, then steal, the charred rat meat from Janina. While Uncle Shepsel embodies selfishness, Janina, Uri, and Misha respond extremely differently to hardship.
Despite being only children, Janina, Uri, and Misha show empathy and kindness in the face of extreme duress. Janina, for example, does her best to save half of the roasted rat for her parents. When Misha sees how desperately the Milgroms need food, he searches for a way out of the ghetto, in order to find sustenance. Likewise, Uri also appears to the boys often, sharing food with them. It is particularly telling that Spinelli also illustrates Uri and the boys overpowering a Flop in this section of the novel, in that we see the group, on the side of good, outdoing the lone, sinister authority figure.
Spinelli once again uses Misha’s naivety and innocence to illustrate the incomprehensibility of the Jackboots’ violence. This is made evident in the Jackboots’ night raid on the ghetto. Misha, though he understands the weight and threat of starvation and homelessness, is still a child. He does not seem to fully grasp that the Jackboots are a life-threatening force. Though Misha watches as Uncle Shepsel has the barrel of rifle shoved into his mouth and recognizes that he does not want the same to happen to him, he is later overcome with the desire to call out to Jackboots, to show off how straight he is standing. Misha instinctively thinks that the night raid is a parade.
Misha’s identity is once again a vital part of the way that Spinelli conveys the dehumanization of Jews. Spinelli writes of Misha’s thought process, “I am a Jew now. A filthy son of Abraham. They’re screaming at me. I am somebody” (75).
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