Milkweed Point of View Essay

According to the National Poverty Center, 6.4 million children were poor in 2010. These unfortunate children didn't have an education, food, money, a home, or barely anything else.  These are some of reasons why the book Milkweed is interesting.  This book is about a poor orphan who steals food to survive.  He moves to the ghetto and meet a few friends along the way. Milkweed is told through the eyes of a little boy, about the age of 8,  given the name Misha.

Misha doesn't understand everything that is going on in the book.  He didn't know what a lot of things were. For example, he didn't know what a Jackboot was and he thought they were his friends.  Also he didn't know what Jews or orphans are, nor that when you light birthday candles your not trying to burn the cake, or hardly anything other than how to steal food.  This makes it hard for the reader to interpret because he doesn't know how to read or write and he doesn't know what just about anything is.  For instance, when he ran away with Janina's birthday cake, if it weren't for Uri, neither Misha nor the reader would have known what the cake said and learned Janina's name.

The story told in Misha's point of view was a little confusing because of Misha's lack of knowledge, but if the story were told from Uri's point of view the story would be much different. For one thing you would know about Uri's family and past.  You would also know about Uri's job before Misha found him working at the "blue camel hotel."  Another thing that would be different is that you would know what was going on in Uri's head through all of the book, like why he shot Misha's ear and what he was thinking at that moment.  Also it would be fascinating  to know why Uri did the things he did because we already know why Misha did the things he did. It would also be interesting to see what Uri thought of Misha. Imagine if you brought a kid in off the streets and they kept asking you simple questions or doing things that most people don't do. I think that it would be interesting to read this story from Uri's point of view.

Misha tells the story Milkweed from his point of view.  This book really shows you how terrible some people's lives really are.  There are plenty of children like Misha who are living in poverty now. So the next time you are begging your mom for a candy bar from the grocery store, stop and think about the children living in poverty who are probably begging their parents for something as simple as a glass of clean water.