The Cage

At the beginning of Chapter 15, Riva returns her attention to the passage of the seasons. Comparing this Pesach to the Pesach of Chapter 2, four years earlier, Riva recognizes “how different” the two holidays are: “There is no painting the apartment, no scrubbing the floors, no hustle and bustle” (73). Riva feels and reflects upon the absence of her mother, who is at the center of her memory of Pesach.

The other critical element of the first Pesach in the novel, Mrs. Gruber, also reappears in Riva’s memory. Riva knows that Harry has joined the war, and she wonders: “Will Harry become one of the war victims?” (73). For all of the Grubers’ decisions to protect themselves, Riva still sees the danger that awaits them; in Nazi-occupied Poland, she feels, “we are all losers. Still, nature is alive; life goes on…” (74).

Part of the continued cycle of life, though, is Laibele’s death, which happens during “the holiday of freedom, the holiday of joy—in the midst of nature renewing life” (74). Riva begs him not to go, but Mrs. Avner encourages her to let him “die in peace,” for it is a sin to stop him from dying when he needs to (74). The three siblings that remain (Riva, Motele, and Moishele) “cuddle together to find the courage to go on, to comfort one another” the night following his death (74). The next day, a wagon carts away his dead body, and Riva feels that her “home is silent and empty,” but despite the change, “the sun does not stop shining” (74).

After Laibele passes away, another stranger arrives at Riva’s door. Yulek, who is seventeen years old, just like Riva, with blond hair and blue eyes, introduces himself as part of Skif, the children’s socialist movement. He explains that Riva, who has attended Skif meetings throughout her life, does not know him because he and his sister, Faygele, are new to the area. He also explains that he knows about Riva’s mother and Laibele; he connects with Riva by telling her that his father was taken away “the bloody Thursday in April 1940,” the same “horror caravan” that swept Riva up (76). Without their father, his mother “locked herself in a world of her own,” rendering Yulek as “father and mother to Faygele--just as [Riva is] to Motele and Moishele” (76).

Yulek provides a soothing presence; he (and, often, Faygele) visits almost every evening. He is calming; “what secret power is giving him that hunger for life, that will to survive that he passes on to all around him?” (76) He arrives with a book and encourages Riva in her learning and her writing. He grows particularly angry when she doubts the use of her letters, mentioning her conviction that she (and the others) will die before they can read the letters.

Riva looks around the space of her apartment, recognizes the “traces” of the lives of her grandparents, parents, sisters, brothers, aunts, and uncles in that space. Her courage rising, she starts to ask herself: “How can I think that they will never return? How can I think that we will all just vanish from here? I must continue” (77). “Yulek is right,” she realizes, and, placing her hand on his, she begins to smile again (77).