The Cage

When orders arrive from the Ghetto Government for Riva, Motele, and Moishele to leave their apartment, the siblings are not surprised. Because the population is shrinking, and suffering from a lack of firewood that freezes families to death, the government orders older buildings dismantled for firewood. Riva laments the loss of a space filled “with memories” from her “entire family” (78). Yulek helps her to leave by reminding her that, even without those walls, “they will always live in [her] heart and mind” (79).

The family’s new home is a one-room space, formerly a grocery store, featuring front and back entrances and a capacious cellar. The siblings first appreciate the cellar, anticipating using the space, which once was used to store vegetables, to hide themselves. Instinctively, Riva thinks of the family that lived in the space before, the people who stocked and sold groceries there, but Moishele pulls her out of the past by mocking her for “wandering in the past again” (79). He is full of hope, and Riva is thankful that this “sweet, young child who never had any childhood” can call her back into the present, but both Moishele and Motele want to focus on the “work to do” in their new home (80).