Milkweed

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2003

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Chapters 16-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 16 Summary

The beginning of Chapter 16 finds Misha telling Uri about the day he spent with Janina and her family. Misha observes how Janina’s family sends Uncle Shepsel into one of the houses to stand in a doorway, in order to claim a room. Misha tells Uri that the room is the size of a closet. As Janina walks him downstairs to the landing of the building, she gives him another buttercream and hazelnut candy. The candy has been bitten in half.

Later, Misha returns to the ghetto only to see that Jackboots are in the process of building a wall around it. Misha returns to the house on Niska Street and brings food to Janina’s family. Janina’s mother stays lying down on a mattress on the corner of the room and is displeased by Misha’s presence. Janina’s mother is unimpressed by the food that Misha has stolen after she sees that he has brought baking powder. Janina’s mother says that she once had an oven and that she “was a human being once” (61). Misha tells them about the wall and tells Janina that he can get in and out of anywhere due to his small size.

As the family speaks, there is a knock on the door by a Hiram Lefkowitz, who gives a piece of paper to Janina’s father. Her father, Mr. Milgrom, is a pharmacist, and gives the man his prescription without accepting anything in return. Uncle Shepsel protests Mr. Milgrom’s charity, but the latter insists that he is simply doing his job. Mr. Milgrom has hope that perhaps they will only be in the ghetto for a week. Uncle Shepsel is not so sure. Misha learns that Janina’s last name is Milgrom and that her father’s name is Tobiasz Milgrom.

Chapter 17 Summary

The boys move in with Uri and Misha at their stable. There are new boys who move in with them but the most notable of the group are Enos, Kuba, Ferdi, Olek, Big Henryk, and Jon. The boys are no longer able to blend into the crowd, now that Jews have been sent to the ghetto. The boys speak of “finches,” people who tell Jackboots where Jewish people are hiding (64). Misha describes how soon after, as the boys are sleeping in the hayloft, Jackboots storm the barn and begin shooting, killing one of the new boys.

The boys are marched into the ghetto. Misha takes the wall and its barbed wire as a personal affront, as he has been unable to sneak in to find Janina. Uri is missing, as he was not sleeping in the stable with them during the night of the raid. Misha is not worried, however, because Uri does not look like a Jew and he is far smarter than the Jackboots. It is revealed that Uri has been disappearing for days at a time, threatening Misha before he leaves to ensure that he behaves. Misha is certain that Uri will find them.

The Jackboots march the boys down the street. Upon entering the ghetto, Misha immediately goes to the Milgroms’ apartment, where he discovers that Janina’s father has been given a work detail and that her mother is sewing uniforms for Jackboot soldiers at a factory. Uncle Shepsel reminds them to wear their armbands as Misha and Janina race outside to play. Janina claims that she does not wear hers because she is a little girl and because the ghetto is safe.

Misha observes people on the street calling out and trying to sell their goods. Misha and Janina meet Olek, the one-armed boy, and Jon, the sickly, quiet boy. Misha introduces Janina as his sister. Misha and Janina observe some children stealing from each other, and calls them “unlucky orphans,” those who do not live in the orphanage or with the boys (67).

Chapter 18 Summary: “Winter”

Uri reunites with Misha in the ghetto. Uri is even more elusive than he was previously and refuses to tell Misha where he goes during the day. It is the middle of winter and as the boys walk through the street, they come across a boy sleeping in the street with a sheet of newspaper over him. Initially, Misha thinks the boy is stupid because newspaper will not keep him warm; Uri informs Misha that the boy is dead. Misha and Uri speak about the boy and Misha learns that the bodies are covered with newspaper so that people will not see them. Misha insists that he sees them anyway.

Misha and Uri watch as a man stops in front of a body and uses the corpse as a step to tie his shoe. At the beginning, Misha notes that most of the bodies still wear shoes. Soon after, the corpses no longer have shoes or socks. Misha wonders if angels are the ones who move the bodies off the street.

Chapters 16-18 Analysis

In this section of the novel, Spinelli narrows the setting of Milkweed from Warsaw, Poland, to the ghetto. While Janina still believes that the ghetto is a safe place, it is clear that the adults around her do not share this sentiment. The boys look out for each other, sharing a place to sleep and sharing food, when they have it. This group of outcasts is a microcosm of the large number of people that the Jackboots force into the ghetto. Jews and other people forced into the ghetto are given little choice but to compete and view others as a threat. Spinelli illustrates this with the race for housing in the ghetto. The Milgroms are forced to send Uncle Shepsel to guard a doorway, at risk of losing their space to someone else.

Mr. Milgrom understands the need for ruthlessness in a survival situation but he continues to value compassion and charitability. When a man gives Mr. Milgrom a prescription for medication, he fills it without a second thought, refusing to take pay for his service. Uncle Shepsel fails to understand the need for compassion, and this foreshadows his later treatment of not only his own family but also the other Jews around him. Mr. Milgrom embodies empathy and kindness within the novel, against a backdrop of cruelty and disregard for human life.

The Jackboots’ treatment of Jewish people is incomprehensible. As the boys run away from Jackboots, Spinelli describes the boys as “cockroaches,” scrambling away from Jackboots underfoot (64). The descriptor Spinelli uses compounds the dehumanization of Jewish people not only by the Jackboots but also by others living in the ghetto. This is made most apparent when Misha comes across his first dead body. When Misha sees the body of the boy, covered by a newspaper, he assumes that the boy is merely sleeping. However, Uri makes it clear that the boy is dead. The newspaper acts as a veil, allowing passersby to ignore the corpse on the street. That a man uses the body as an ad-hoc ledge to tie his shoe foreshadows how death will be soon be commonplace in the ghetto.