Milkweed Quotes

In the book Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli, Misha was an eight year old boy who was a gypsy that lived in the ghetto of Warsaw. The ghetto was an area of land that is surrounded by walls that hold jews and gypsies, jews are a member of the people and cultural community whose traditional religion is Judaism. On the other hand a gypsy is someone who is a member of a traveling people traditionally living by itinerant trade and they always steal from the wealthy, most of all gypsies are not reliable . Since Misha had his yellowstone people know he was a gypsy because they think he stole it. Misha stole from people to survive and relied only on himself .Misha does not have any food, water or protection in the time that he is living in the ghetto. Misha only has his close friends that are his family. Misha’s yellowstone is a symbol for identity because identity is drawn from family.

Misha's family shows him who he is and what his life was like until now.

Uri was making up a story about Misha and his background and Misha asks where his yellowstone came from. I waggled my yellowstone in Uri’s face. ‘’What about this?’’ He stared. ‘’Yes… it was your fathers’’ (Spinelli 31). Misha now knows his identity after Uri told him who he was, but Misha really wanted to know most about his yellowstone that he now knows came from his father. After Misha's family told him his identity and that made him really happy and confident because he now has more knowledge about

himself.

Misha knows his identity so now he can tell people who he is. Misha was telling a little girl he just met where he got his yellowstone. I held out my yellowstone. ‘’My father gave me this before I was kidnapped’’ (Spinelli 33). Misha's yellowstone which he got from his dad is a symbol of his identity. He then became so confident that he could go up to anyone and tell them all about himself because his family gave him the knowledge about his background . Without Misha’s family, Misha would not be able to tell everyone who he is and what his life is like.

Without Misha’s family Misha would not know who he was in Milkweed. His yellowstone allowed him to be who he was, that is a gypsy. Misha’s identity gave him knowledge, happiness and confidence, all those values came from his family. Misha’s yellowstone is a symbol of identity because identity is drawn from family. Without our identity that comes from our family members we would not have religions today.