Milkweed: Loss Of Innocence

Everybody knows that there are times in life, where we do something that we very well know that we shouldn't, but we do it anyway. Why? Because we have to. Sometimes it's because we really want something, but in Milkweed, Misha does things he shouldn't because if he doesn't, he, along with his family, wouldn't survive.

Back in the holocaust, it was a bad time to be Jewish. You had pretty much no control over your life, because the Germans made decisions for you. One of these was to move to the Ghetto, where you rarely had any food, and the Germans just tried to starve you to death. Your only hope was to smuggle food from the outside world, even if it meant risking your life in the process. Soon, the Germans caught on, and warned the Jewish to stop, or they would get killed. It took flamethrowers, guns, and clubs to convince the Jewish that smuggling food was a bad idea. But still, Misha cares about his family enough, to do whatever he needs to do, even if it means losing his innocence, for the survival of his family.

A similar case, is in Life of Pi, when Pi Patel is stranded on a lifeboat for 227 days, with no food. At one point he comes across an island, and finds a person. The person is a bit crazy, as he has no food either, but at one point, Pi has no choice, even if it means losing his innocence, he has to eat the man. He doesn't want to, but with his starvation, he would've done anything for his survival, just like Misha did when he smuggled.

We all do things that we shouldn't, and in both Misha and Pi's case, they do them for a good reason, survival. But have you ever done something that you shouldn't have, that wasn't for a good reason? Next time you're doing something you'll probabaly think, Can I live without doing this?

Point of View: Milkweed

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli, is a book about rough times back in the Holocaust. This is told by a very young boy named Misha, who has no knowledge of his parents, or much of his previous life before the story, or of anything. As you can probably guess, the time period of the Holocaust was not a good time to be confused. If you unknowingly did something wrong, you were killed, and that was the end of it. Luckily, Misha has his friends, and adopted family, to guide him along.

One of Misha's best friends is Uri. Uri is almost everything Misha isn't. He's smart, patient, and is a lot less confused as to what's going on around them. The one thing that they have in common, is being a thief, which is how the two met. They both tried to steal a loaf of bread, but Misha got there first. Thinking that a small, quick kid could be useful, Uri builds up a type of "partnership" with Misha, and helps him survive. In my opinion, the story could be very different if told from the perspective of Uri.

Throughout the book, you almost want to yell to Misha, "No! Don't do that! You'll get caught!" or, "What were you thinking?!" but then you remember that he's just a little kid and he doesn't know any better, which also provides an interesting aspect to the story. It is fun to listen to Misha's point of view, because he is often a bit off on his philosophy, with simple facts such as things like milkweed. He thinks that milkweed is where angels come from, and doesn't think otherwise. When someone tells him something, he doesn't really have any reason to think that it is wrong, and he therefore believes it. On the other hand, Uri knows better, and his perspective would probably be more appealing to an adult audience, an audience who wants to hear the mature side of things. Instead of hearing "I saw people walking down the road, and I couldn't help marching along to the parade. I saw a nice man with really shiny boots and an eagle hat, so I started to talk to him," they'd rather hear a more mature point of view, like that of Uri's which would be something like, "I can't believe that Misha participates in these childish games, he has to think before he does things, because marching along to imaginary parades and walking up to Nazis will get you killed in an heartbeat."

This is one of the many reasons why I think that the story could be altered greatly if the main character's point of view were changed from Misha to Uri.

Uri

Uri, Misha's guidance for most of Milkweed, was a very important character in the book. He was a static character, because he doesn't change for most of the book, and never undergoes any real change. Although static, Uri still made a large impact on our main character, Misha, and without Uri, Misha probably wouldn't have survived.

Throughout the book, whenever Misha unknowingly makes a mistake, Uri is usually there to tell him that he is wrong. Without this guidance, Misha would keep making the same mistakes, and end up getting caught, or worse, dead. But, thanks to Uri, he corrects his mistakes, and ends up surviving. An example of this is when Misha wants to keep stealing food, but Uri knows that the Nazis are cracking down on thieves, so he tells him to stop. Luckily this saves him from getting caught, and probably getting killed. Similar to how Cairon is always guiding and saving Percy in the Percy Jackson series.

If it weren't for Uri, Misha would've made a lot of bad decisions, and probably would've ended up dead, but because of his guidance, Misha lives to have a good life after the holocaust, and even has a kid, and a grandkid. Is there anyone like Uri in your life, correcting your mistakes, and saving you from going horribly wrong?