The Cage Riva Character Analysis

Barbed wire, was it to keep people in or to keep the truth hidden? Will they ever be freed or will they die inside this cage. In this cage, they have no freedom, where they have nothing, there are still all these strong souls. Riva, a brave young woman, fights through it all. In the Novel, The Cage, by Ruth Minsky Sender. Riva shows a great deal of strength and courage for herself, her family and her people. Riva is in pain due to her legs not working and the illness she is fighting. lets herself feel better, she lets herself feel joy. Her lovely brothers starved for Riva, they traded all their bread, for a week, for a vitamin packed tangerine. She splits it with her hungry brothers and enjoys every sweet and sour juicy drop of the golden nectar to heal her weak body. She is strong, she accepts

“It has happened, our dream has come true, we are not being separated! We have one another! We have our home! We are still a family” (Pg. 59). Her dreams are coming true, but her dreams also make her an adult. She has lost all her childhood and her child rights. She is now the caretaker of her sibling, she is now a mother. She is now the one person her sibling can truly rely on to protect them, and she is doing this all to hold her family together. Being a caretaker is alo protecting her children from the monsters. She shows this kind of courage in chapter 21. She rushes to hide herself and her family in a safe place while these monsters tear apart their house above their heads. As the banging of all their belongings being thrown in a search for her and her family, she must stay still and quiet. She holds her family close, they can not scream or cry they can just stay close and pray. Riva showed lots of strength and courage for her family, the monsters left and her family was safe. She also had to do the same for the other people in her life, in the ghetto and in the