S: At the very start of milkweed, we meet the narrator when he is just a little kid living on the streets of Warsaw. He’s a complete orphan, with no memory of his past, and he doesn’t even know his own name, He’s totally invisible until he meets a clever older boy named Uri, who takes him under his wing. In a world that is already becoming scary and confusing, Uri gives the boy his first real identity. He tells him who and what he is. “I am a Jew.” Spinelli 7, This quote is so powerful because it shows how someone can desperately want an identity, any identity, just to feel like they exist, the narrator doesn’t understand the politics or the danger of being Jewish in Warsaw at that time, For him, the word “Jew” isn’t about religion or heritage, it’s a gift from Uri a name for himself when he had none, he’s just happy to finally have a box to check, to know what to call himself It’s heartbreaking because we, as the readers, know the terrible fate that awaits jews in that place and time, but he’s just an innocent kid who is finally happy to belong to something, this moment makes his journey so much more emotional because we see him embracing a label that will put a target on his back.
quote ( “I’m a jew” pag 7)