This paper will look some of the contradictions found within The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick as well as some of reasons why these contradictions are used and what ideas or emotions they convey to the reader. Its through the use of the contradiction that Ozick is able to illustrate the frailty and instability of human life.
The most evident contradiction with The Shawl is the interplay and symbolism between the shawl and Magda. Magda is described as being very near death due to the ever present threat of starvation. “Rosa knew Magda was going to die very soon; she should have been dead already” (Ozick 5). This threat of starvation is in part due to Rosa’s inability to produce milk very early in the story. “Magda relinquished Rosa’s teats… both were cracked, not a sniff of milk” (Ozick 4). Yet despite the threat of starvation, Magda survives for a time due to the shawl. The shawl is described as having magical properties to sustain an infant for three days and three nights. “It was a magic shawl, it could nourish an infant for three days and three nights” (Ozick 5). As such the shawl, either directly or indirectly, supports the life of Magda, which is further supported by when the shawl is taken away, Magda is doomed to die. Thus the Shawl is symbol for life. However this is also directly contradicted when we look at how Magda is characterized. “Magda was a mute… Magda was defective… Magda was dumb” (Ozick 7). So while the shawl keeps Magda alive, it too causes her to be something less than human. So while the shawl supports her life, it also keeps her from being a normal human being. This contrast is further supported when Stella steals the Shawl from Magda. Madga then immediately comes alive as she “flopped onward with her little pencil legs scribbling this way and that, in search of the shawl…It was the first noise Magda had ever sent out from her throat since the drying of Rosa’s nipples” (Ozick 7-8). Thus once she loses the shawl she becomes a normal baby, but is doomed to die.
However, looking at the story again, Magda could of lost the shawl at any point and thus died at any point. We can see this from the shawl itself. The shawl is just a piece of cloth used to swaddle a baby, where cloth isn’t the most solid piece of material. Cloth is bound to rib or fray with use and its just a matter of time as to when the shawl would be destroyed or lost. Thus really Magda had no chance to live, the shawl at best was just buying time until her eventual demise. And this is why I think Ozick choose the shawl to be the symbol of Magda’s life. The cloth, just like human life is frail and fickle and its impossible to know when one may die.
In your blog you said that the shawl is a symbol of life, which I agree with. However, just while reading your blog I contemplated that maybe the shawl isn't a symbol of life, but I symbol of the inevitable death. From the beginning of the story we had doubt about Magda because Rosa said that she knew Magda would die. My theory relates more to your last paragraph where you said, " Magda could of lost the shawl at any point and thus died at any point." And a little later in the paragraph you said, "Really Magda had no chance to live." This makes me think that maybe the shawl is not a symbol of life, but in fact, it's the symbol of the easily foreseen death of Magda.
ReplyDeleteYour post about The Shawl and the contradictions within the story was very interesting to read. The interpretation of the meaning of the shawl and how it symbolized life really caught my attention. I think that was exactly what Ozick was trying to accomplish while writing this story. The Holocaust was a time when life was of stripped away from people who did not meet the “criteria” established by the Nazi regime. Just like the shawl was stripped away from Magda, the innocent life of millions of people was also stripped away. The shawl represented life in the sense that it also provided life for Magda, this is where you discuss the contradiction in the story. The shawl prevented Magda from being killed, but in the end, it is what killed her. Not only does the shawl symbolize the life of the millions of people lost in the Holocaust, but it also symbolizes Magda’s life.
ReplyDeleteWhen you said, “The cloth, just like human life is frail and fickle and its impossible to know when one may die”, it really stood out to me and was a great way to end your post. I had not thought about the concept of Magda dying at any moment until we discussed the story in class. The dangerous situation Stella and Rosa were in with Magda was very suspenseful and led the reader to question what would finally happen to Magda. The shawl was just a piece of cloth, and during that time, Magda was just a child. Her life was not worth much, just like the shawl.