Update IV: Art Direction - Scene 16

In Milkweed the book, Misha makes repeated visits to Bakeries and so do other residents of Warsaw. In reality, bakeries were closed very quickly. When the Nazis started bombing, supply lines were disrupted. The resulting shortages created long lines of people in front of whatever stores remained open - especially bakeries. Long lines of people were visible from the air, and there are multiple reports of bombs being dropped on these crowds. Soon almost all bakeries were closed. After a lull in the bombing people once again snuck outdoors and a black market formed with baked good being driven from the countryside. Due to lack of proper ingredients, some suspect substitutions were made. So, historically bakeries did not stay on the scene for as long as they do in the book, but, the main reason that bakeries appear so often in Milkweed is probably because they represent civilized society. The disruption of civilized life is easily mirrored in them.

SCENE 16: Misha goes to a bakery to get a birthday cake for Janina, to replace the one he destroyed on her birthday. Inadvertently he gets a wedding cake and then sets it on fire on her doorstep because he doesn’t know the difference between candles and fire directly on the cake. Misha is always caught in between “civilized” and “uncivilized” life. What is “civilized”?