The Cage

Chapter 14 begins in bitter winter. Laibele and Riva sing songs and reminisce about how beautiful poems about winter used to seem, but little can keep their minds off the “bitter cold” of the apartment (66). Riva sympathizes with Laibele’s feeling that “nothing has the same meaning anymore,” but she hopes aloud that their struggles will make them “stronger, better people” (66).

Wishing for wood with which to warm their house, Laibele recalls the old oak that Mrs. Gruber ordered cut down. The lack of firewood makes Motele “distraught,” too, “like an animal ready to split open the iron bars of his cage,” and, while his siblings sleep, he sneaks out in search of more wood to provide for the family (68). When he returns, he responds to Riva’s anger by reminding her that stealing means something different now: “They may call it stealing. I call it helping my family survive” (69). Though the siblings are grateful for his risk, they are nervous each day that they will be discovered.

When one piece of the stolen wood remains, police arrive at the apartment and search it, demanding to know who participated in dismantling and stealing wood from an abandoned shed.