Analysis Of Milkweed By Jerry Spinelli

History is everything but a great man’s biography. It’s what causes great men to rise, and sacrifice their lives for others. It’s what causes millions of deaths. In 1933, a genocide by Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany killed six million Jewish people. This was one of the deadliest genocides in the world. Its horrifying stories are still told today through the books like The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Yellow Star, and much more. Similarly, Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli is another novel that keeps history alive to make sure the children of today understand their ancestors and cruelties of the past. Spinelli wrote an abundant amount of books and won the Golden Kite Award for Milkweed. Milkweed is a Young Adult, historical fiction book which
It was the step before getting sent off to a concentration camp. Misha gets moved there with all of his friends except Uri. Misha then gets taken in by Janina’s family in the ghetto he lives with Janina, her mom, dad and, uncle. “When everything was finally in and Janina’s father shut the door, that was when Uncle Shepsal said it: “We’re living in a closet.” (Spinelli 75). Conditions deteriorate very quickly. The ghetto gets very rough to the point where Mrs.Milgrom dies on her mattress, due to lack of resources. Misha finds a hole in the fence separating the ghetto from the city, he goes through the hole to get much-needed food from the city for the people in the ghetto. Uri becomes a soldier for the Nazis to protect his loved ones, to make sure they do not get taken into the concentration camps. Uri is the ringleader of their group and the only one who wasn’t taken into the ghetto. He is willing to go to any extent to make sure his loved ones are
The city has had less attention and he thinks it is safer to sneak in and live there. Misha takes Janina, Mr.Milgrom and goes into the city. Over time they try to come back and they realize that the hole in the fence is now closed. They are stranded in the city for longer and they finally find a way to get back into the ghetto. When they get into the ghetto everything is distraught. Janina gets captured by the jackboots. Jackboots are the ones running the concentration camps. Misha goes out looking for Janina. Milkweed is a story about war and the holocaust. About a young boy searching for an identity and something to believe in. A boy who is going through such a rough time, he is debating whether angels or heaven is real. Spinelli gets to the reader with his underlying messages throughout the book. In the end, everything's different when
Misha says “In the ghetto all was gray: the people were gray, the smells were gray, here everything was colors to me.” (Spinelli