The
Shawl by Cynthia Ozick depicts a
small Jewish family being sent and living in a concentration camp during the
horrific times of the Holocaust. This terrifying event has been embedded into
world history and has been retold throughout literature again and again. For
example, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was a the first piece of
literature I read in elementary school that depicted different perspectives
from two different little boys who were affected by the Holocaust. These two
stories both examine, in detail how people were permanently damaged and
emotionally scarred by the Holocaust.
Ozick depicts with great detail the
inhumane acts that took place during the Holocaust. In the beginning of the
story, Rosa, the matriarch did not know exactly what was going on, but she was
still aware of the fact that her baby, Magda would most likely be taken away
from her. I understood this as possible maternal instinct and an overwhelming
sense of doom placed like a cloud over their heads. Rosa, holding her baby,
along with her niece, Stella, is being corralled like animals onto the trains
towards the concentration camps. As they progress, Rosa contemplated leaving
Magda: “She could leave the line for a minute and push Magda into the hands of
any woman on the side of the road… And even if she fled the line for half a
second and pushed the shawl-bundle at a stranger, would the woman take it”
(Ozick 4). Being the head of their family, Rosa considers any possibility to
keep her child safe.
As
I continued reading, each sentence was as bone chilling as the next. Ozick
holds nothing back when portraying what life would be like in a concentration
camp. The fact that the Holocaust was a real event that eradicated over 11
million people absolutely sickens me. The
ending of the story really resonated with me. Once the soldiers found Magda, I
just knew that this was not going to end well. Magda’s death was terrifying and
nauseating. Afterwards, Ozick shows us what is running through Rosa’s mind:
“She only stood, because if she ran they would shoot, and if she tried to pick
up the sticks of Magda’s body they would shoot, and fi she let the wolf’s
screech ascending now through the ladder of her skeleton break out, they would
shoot” (Ozick 10). Within a mere sentence, Ozick was able to convey Rosa’s
mental state. After seeing her child brutally murdered, simply for being alive,
Rosa bottles up her emotions on the inside, but remains stoic on the outside.
The strength of Rosa as a woman and a mother is conveyed through these last
sentences. Anyone who reads The Shawl will remember it not because it
was sickening and disturbing, but because it was based on true events that
occurred in history.
I definitely agree that Ozick’s use of detail illustrates the terrible acts that took place during the Holocaust. However, I do disagree that Rosa doesn’t completely understand what is going on around her. I would argue the opposite, while her maternal instinct would want her to protect her child, I think she recognizes the absolute danger that surrounds them. You pointed out that Rosa thought about giving Magda away to protection and I think that is also an example of recognizing the danger around them. I don’t think any parent would even contemplate giving their child to a stranger unless the circumstances surrounding them were extreme as they were during the Holocaust.
ReplyDeleteOn a different note, later you also mention that Ozwick shows what is running through Rosa’s mind after Magda’s death. That made me think of what we were talking about in class on Monday. The other story following The Shawl where it illustrates how Rosa and Stella are surviving after the Holocaust. We talked about how Rosa was so affected by it, and I think the particular passage you chose illustrates one of the most traumatic events Rosa experienced. Witnessing the death of her child, and a cruel death at that. She cannot respond physically to her daughter’s death without getting herself killed she remains silent and still without letting an ounce of her horror evoke. It was difficult to read this story because all of the strong imagery used by Ozick. Like you said this story was definitely terrifying.