The cricket cage represents different things to different characters, including wealth and captivity. The cage’s history and appearance give it the allure of wealth and prestige. Sai Fong claims that the Emperor of China’s cricket once lived in the ornate, seven-tiered pagoda, and Mario is greatly impressed. Tucker, always enthusiastic about wealth, admires the cage, which he thinks is “beautiful” and a place where one “could feel like a king” (54). Chester, however, is uncomfortable in the cage. He’s used to the natural freedom of life in his meadow and feels “nervous” being imprisoned. The cricket cage is the opposite of Chester’s home in his stump. When Harry unlatches the cage, Chester comments, “It’s a relief to be free” (54). The need for freedom is an important part of why Chester decides to return to Connecticut.

The intricate cage feels uncomfortable in the same way that fame does to Chester. Fame restricts Chester’s freedom, and he becomes, as the old idiom illustrates, like “a bird in a gilded cage,” living in a luxury prison without freedom or happiness. Although Tucker enjoys sleeping on paper money in the pagoda, Harry thinks he looks like “a mouse in a trap” inside the cage (56), supporting the idea that the cage is a prison.