Chapters 15 through 24 Summary and Analysis

In chapter fourteen, Laibele told Riva one day that he had been thinking about all the poems they learned as children about winter. He said that the poems had such happy sounds then but that he realized it was because they were snug and safe inside a warm, happy home. The weather was brutal and the children were very cold one night. Laibele suggested that they go to bed and cover up in an effort to get warm and all the children did as he says. However, Riva woke in the middle of the night to discover that someone was coming into the apartment. It was Motele, and he had served as a lookout while some men tore down an old building. In return for being the lookout, he was allowed to take home a large armload of the...