Category Archives: Assignments

Critical Questions and Reflections on the Cage.

Guidelines:

• Please include email a short book review after you are finished reading the book
• You may choose one or several questions to answer in a media format.
• Preference is for formal paragraphs or academic essay format.
• Please email Ms. Ruck for alternative format proposals.

1. Discuss the importance of community in Lods, Poland, and what community meant for Riva and her family.

2. Discuss the purpose of the ghettos established by the Third Reich and the conditions suffered by Jews in the ghettos. How does Riva’s narrative help to inform the reader about these ghettos?

3. Examine how Rita was treated in comparison to others and conclude why she was given second chances on many occasions. Discuss how this impacted her emotionally.

4.Analyze the significance of the statement that the bombs were “music”.

5. Examine the role that writing had in Riva’s life.

6. Discuss the types of punishment used in concentration and labour camps during the Holocaust and determine the purpose of the punishment. Analyze whether the punishment fits the “crime”.

7. Examine the meaning of the statement “if we forget the past, it could happen again”.

8. Discuss Sender’s use of foreshadowing and other literary devices in the Cage.

As long as there is life, there is hope

After Mama is taken away by the Nazis, Riva and her younger brothers cling to their mother’s brave words to help them endure life in the Lodz ghetto. Then the family is rounded up, deported to Auschwitz, and separated. Now Riva is alone. 

At Auschwitz, and later in the work camps at Mittlesteine and Grafenort, Riva vows to live, and to hope – for Mama, for her brothers, for the millions of other victims of the nightmare of the Holocaust. And through determination and courage, and unexpected small acts of kindness, she does live – to write the unforgettable memoir that is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.