The story promptly introduces Balthazar’s main conflict: He has just completed his work on the cage, a labor of love that he is clearly enthusiastic about, but he is not sure how to demand payment for his work. When Ursula asks him how much money he will ask for, Balthazar seems unsure. He suggests that he will ask for a modestly inflated amount and hope that José Montiel will haggle him down to an acceptable one. This slippery quality of money—the way its value changes from person to person—is García Márquez’s first suggestion that his story explores an essential controversy in human values: the relative importance of time, skill, money, and possessions.

The first scene also establishes a dynamic of contrast between Balthazar and Ursula. Ursula is annoyed by the two weeks Balthazar gave to his work on the cage (shutting down his normal carpentry business to complete it), but now her main concern is defending the value of his work. “Ask for fifty,” she tells Balthazar, nearly doubling the price he is thinking of naming. Ursula serves as a foil, bringing Balthazar’s lack of business acumen into focus.