Milkweed -Jerry Spinelli(Literary Luminary) #6

For this literature circles meeting, our group finally finished the book Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli by reading the last 70 pages. My position was the Literary Luminary, so I chose 5 paragraphs/sentences that seemed interesting from this section.

1. (Third paragraph of 163p.) And then I noticed that it was only cracked, not broken apart. There was no yellow seeping into the snow. I didn't understand. An egg that cracked but didn't break. It was a miracle!

Misha, in the text, had just said that he was heartbroken because the egg was cracked, and now he is relieved and shocked that it didn't break apart. Reading this paragraph, my heart went through ease, compassion, and adore. I was relieved as well as Misha, because I also thought the egg was spoiled due to Misha's explanations. I felt compassion and adore as I found the innocence of a poor little child who doesn't know what a hard-boiled egg is. He thinks it's just a miracle that an egg cracked yet didn't break.

2. (Last paragraph of 169p.) "I have to go," he said. "Here." He gave me the rest of the pickle. He stepped back. He stared at me up and down. He wagged his head. He looked sad. "Darker than ever." He spit on his finger and rubbed my cheek. "Before you go, find some water and wash your face." He reached into a rubble of bricks and pulled out a handful of white dust. "See this? Rub your face with it. Your hands." He washed my hands in the dust. They became whiter than his. "See? Before you go"-pointing to my armband-"take off that thing." He grabbed my hair and shook my head until I was dizzy. "Do not look at anyone. Do not stop for anything. You are not a Jew. You are not a Gypsy. You are nobody." He slapped my face. "Say it."

In the paragraph above, I can feel the love of Uri for Misha. I was touched because Uri kept on warning and making orders for him to survive when he goes away, yet never crying and being firm and straightforward. I would like to have a friend who knows about the world better than I do, who cares for me a lot, and who can make me emotional by ordering-just like Uri.

3. (Sentences of 90p.) Buffo was there, smiling, waiting for me. I could smell the mint. The blue man rode the merry-go-round to the tootling music. I saw bodies wrapped in newspaper floating above the sidewalks. I felt Uri smack me in the head and call me stupid. I saw Himmler's car snap his heels together and salute me and say, "Hanukkah!" I saw the orphans. They were marching down the tracks, led by Doctor Korczak. The orphans were marching and singing, their shoes all hitting the ground at once, and the oven door opened, and into the oven they went, heads held high, marching and singing. Every day I heard Kuba laughing. Every day I looked for Janina and every day she was there. I was used to her constant presence, to her mimicking everything I did. I kept glancing around to see myself repeated, but there was only me.

These sentences showed how much Misha misses all of his friends, even his enemy friends. I felt bad for Misha because he was going through a situation where he wakes up one day and realize that everybody is gone and he probably won't be able to see anyone again...when he doesn't deserve it. If this ever happened to me, I would likely be crying and crying, thinking about my friends and questioning my rights.

4. (Second paragraph of 197p.) Standing in the silent dust, I understood at last what Uri had done and what he had saved me from. I understood that the Uri I knew-the real Uri-was not the one the Nazis knew. I smiled to think of him on the last day, once again in his own clothes, shaking his fist at the oncoming tanks, his red hair flaring, invisible no more, calling all the world's attention to himself.

This paragraph made my emotions fill up my heart and my tears roll down my cheeks. It was the moment when Misha, eventually after years, understand what Uri was trying to do, why Uri was so fierce and urgent, and how Uri helped him. He is recalling Uri in his familiar look, and that made me cry so much. It made me be in Misha's point of view and undergo the similar feeling he did in that part of the book.

5. (Last paragraph of this book) I rock. I smile. I close my eyes. I think of all the voices that have told me who I have been, the names I've had. Call me thief. Call me stupid. Call me Gypsy. Call me Jew. Call me one-eared Jack. I don't care. Empty-handed victims once told me who I was. Then Uri told me. Then an armband. Then an immigration officer. And now this little girl in my lap, this little girl whose call silences the tramping Jackboots. Her voice will be the last. I was. Now I am. I am...Poppynoodle.

As this paragraph ends the book, I have some aspects that I like about it and some that I don't. I was very satisfied about how it shows the theme of this book which is identity, and how it skims through the whole book using Misha's constant changes in his name. However, I didn't like the last sentence. I understand that 'Poppynoodle' is what his granddaughter calls him and how it's his new name, but if it was me, I would make a less funny name rather than 'Poppynoodle'. I can see that the last sentence was supposed to be very heavy and powerful. But 'Poppynoodle' sounds more like an entertaining nickname rather than his last name in his life before he dies.