Milkweed Blog #1

Alex Nedera
Milkweed: Travel Tracer
Chapter 14, pg 66

       The action begins in the Warsaw city center, where the protagonist is stealing bread. After running away, he is confronted by another orphan named Uri, who had in mind stealing the very bread that the main character was consuming. After (for some reason?) becoming instant friends, Uri takes the main character to a stable where other homeless children gather and stockpile their stolen food. The stables owner comes, and the orphans are forced to scatter. The protagonist runs after Uri. Uri takes the main character to a house with running water where the ripe-smelling protagonist takes a shower. Then, Uri takes the protagonist to a barbershop and gives him a haircut. 
      Uri also gives the protagonist a codename, Misha, because the protagonist did not have any other name. Some time passes, and Jackboots (Nazis) occupy Warsaw. Misha then sees tanks in the city square. Misha wishes to be a Jackboot because he sees their organization, discipline, tanks and other complex machines. One day Misha finds himself in a garden, where a girl lives. He steals her tomatoes. Later, he comes back and is invited to a birthday party at their house, where he steals the cake because he was surprised at the candles that they put in the cake. He steals another one and gives it back.

                During our discussion, Tomer summarized the story, which gaves us a refresher of the events. Matija then showed us the different or important words that we found after which we had to guess the definition (not really). Boris then asked us questions which we had to answer with our analytical skills.

Milkweed chapter 1-8 summery

Milkweed chapter 1-8 summery

The narrator’s name is unknown. He does not know anything about his identity. Uri is another character that takes the narrator to the orphanage that he is living at, since the narrator is also an orphan. There are a lot of kids in the orphanage. At the beginning they were trying to figure out the identity of the narrator with no success. At the end Uri says that he thinks the narrator is a gipsy, and this is all they know. The life in the Second World War is hard, especially of orphans who have to steal food to survive. Uri and the narrator are talking and Uri figures out that the narrator has a younger brother. The narrator says that he wants to be one of the Jackboots one day (Jackboots are the Nazis). In chapter 7, the narrator is given a name (Misha Pilsudski) by Uri. Uri tells Misha the story of how their family was separated and Misha is sad with him. Misha is happy he is not a Jew because he saw what the Nazis are doing and how they abuse the Jews.