Examples Of Survival In Milkweed

ews Sliding Under Obstacles in the Will of Survival

Lice. There is an abundance of lice in your head, and there are more eggs than lice. You get used to it. You’re starving, beaten, and dying of disease. These are just a few things you have to deal with. Milkweed, a historical- fiction book written by Jerry Spinelli, is about an orphan boy named Misha who lost his identity in Nazi occupied Warsaw, Poland during War World II. Throughout the book, Misha has to overcome obstacles, which demonstrates the theme the will of survival.

Food is a colossal part of surviving. In chapter one, we start right away with Misha running away with food to eat. In this passage, his memory revolves around surviving. “I am running. That’s the first thing I remember. Running. I carry something, my arm curled around it, hugging it to my chest. Bread, of course.” Jerry Spinelli puts a young boy dashing down the streets to show that survival is already a big key in Milkweed. Another example in chapter seven, Misha even says, “I came to the city of Warsaw, where I learned to steal food to keep from

The Nazis are “relocating” the Jews. The Jews think that the “relocating” will be great because they will have food and be free. But the Jackboots, men that torture and are in charge of Jews, are actually taking the Jews out to kill them, or put them in “oven.” Every Jew thinks the old man is crazy, but he was genuinely foreshadowing the truth. In the end, Misha escapes the ovens and he is the ultimate survivor.

Every war is hard to survive. In the end of Milkweed, a historical-fiction book written by Jerry Spinelli, Misha gets married, has a kid, his wife leaves him, and he grows up a mirthful life with his daughter and granddaughter. Milkweed’s ending may have not been joyful to every reader-or every character- but in the end, Jerry Spinelli did a prodigious job illustrating what it was like in the will of survival of the