Milkweed

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2003

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Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary: “Memory”

The novel begins in medias res. Milkweed’s first-person narrator is running through the streets of Warsaw, Poland. An unknown individual pursues the narrator after the narrator steals a loaf of bread. The narrator informs the reader that the recollection often comes to him as both a dream and a memory. The dream leaves his legs tingling when he awakes.

Chapter 2 Summary: “Summer”

The second chapter of Milkweed begins with a bigger, redheaded, boy named Uri pulling the yet-unnamed narrator to safety. After they are chased through streets and alleyways, Uri warns the narrator that if he is not careful, he will inevitably be pursued by a group of men called the “Jackboots,” later to be understood as Nazi soldiers.

Both of them try to steal the same loaf of bread, but despite this, Uri introduces himself to the narrator and they share the food. Uri explains the sounds of Jackboots shelling and shooting around the city. At the end of Chapter Two, the narrator finally tells the reader his name: Stopthief.

Chapter 3 Summary

In Chapter 3, Uri takes Stopthief to a stable, where other child thieves gather to hide and share their stolen goods. The boys pick and eat the array of breads and sausages they’ve hidden in the stalls. They try and determine if Stopthief is worthy of joining their ranks. As explosions echo around the city, the boys dissect Stopthief’s every trait. Some believe that he is too small to join them, others think he is too stupid or too young.

Stopthief betrays his age and naivety through his inability to answer their simple questions. Stopthief does not know how old he is, nor does he know what a Jew is. The boys claim that he looks Jewish, even as they compare Jewishness to animals, bugs, and feces. It is then revealed however, that all the boys in the group are in fact, Jewish.

Stopthief is described in greater detail in Chapter 3. He wears a yellow stone on a string around his neck, has black eyes, and dark skin. When the boys notice the stone, they change their minds and decide that he is a gypsy. In response, Stopthief agrees, for he recognizes the word and has overheard it before.

The boys bond over their similar status, commiserating on how people everywhere hate Jews, including people in America. They discuss how everyone demonizes them. They react to this, throwing food and bemoaning tragedy, claiming that they drink babies’ blood, boiling the babies and eating them for matzoh. Their rowdiness brings the stableman running, and the boys are chased out into the city.

Uri brings Stopthief to a dark cellar beneath an abandoned barbershop. The cellar is a makeshift safe house for Uri and Stopthief, with carpets, a bed, chair, radio, chest of drawers, and an icebox. Chapter 3 ends with the boys eating together.

Chapters 1-3 Analysis

Chapters 1-3 of Jerry Spinelli’s Milkweed establish the tone and setting of the novel. In three short chapters, Spinelli presents the omnipresent hunger in the war-torn city. The protagonist’s every waking moment seems to be occupied with finding sustenance. Stopthief and Uri are perpetually in motion, constantly running and escaping the all-pervading threat of the “Jackboots,” who are as of yet still an undefined force.

The threat of the war, and of the Jackboots, is present throughout the three chapters. Though short, every scene is punctuated with violence. The description of bombs and guns going off are muted as Spinelli paints the background of the scenes with reminders of the war and juxtaposes these scenes against brief moments of levity. This can be seen numerous times in the three chapters but most evidently when Spinelli writes, “Everyone, even Uri, howled with laughter. Explosions went off beyond the walls” (4). The juxtaposition between the laughter and explosions in the same scene mirrors the character foils of Stopthief and Uri.

In much the same way that the scenes in the foreground are often juxtaposed to the war-torn city in the background, Stopthief and Uri are likewise sharply contrasted, not only in physical appearance but also in personality and knowledge. While Uri is described as bigger and redheaded, Stopthief is seen as the runt, and is darker in complexion and hair color. Parallel to this, Uri is knowledgeable about the war and the Jackboots, while Stopthief is ignorant of both his own history and the world around him. Stopthief’s character is marked by his naivety and innocence in the face of war; Uri’s character, on the other hand, is defined by his desire to help and care for Stopthief, despite the violence around them.