The Shawl

Image: "If You Are a Ghost" by Immortal-Mynx

Cynhtia Ozick's The Shawl is broken up into two stories, "The Shawl" and "Rosa". In "The Shawl" we are briefly introduced to Rosa, a holocaust captive who witnessed the gruesome death of her baby Magda at the hands of the Nazis.  The second story Rosa takes place more than thirty years later, and shows us how even though Rosa is a "survivor" she is also a victim who is unable to cope with the loss of her child. 


During "The Shaw"l Rosa tells us that she believes the shawl she would wrap Magda in was magical, and kept the child from crying out (which is why she stayed hidden for so long) in "Rosa" she treats the shawl like a sacred object, able to conjuring up her daughter in her mind who she still believes she can communicate with. Rosa moved to Florida after destroying her own antique store in New York. She essentially puts herself in isolation, and seldom talks to anyone except for her niece Stella who is still living in New York. In Rosa's mind she really attempts to place a lot of blame on Stella for what happened to Magda, because Stella had taken Magda's shawl for herself, causing the child to wander around in search of it (which is what made her be discovered.) Rosa however is not a very reliable narrator, and we can see that Stella does have good intentions for her aunt and only wants her to be able to express her grief about what happened all those years ago and move on from it. 


Rosa does begin to move on a little when she is forced to socialize with a man named Mr. Persky who takes an interest in her. While she  does very much resist his advances, the fact someone is reaching out to her allows her to start to let go of the power that she shawl has over her. Also she has been receiving letters from a doctor who is interested in interviewing her about her experiences in the camps. She finds this highly insulting, not wanting her story to become a statistic. However these letters also force her to confront her past and her frustration through receiving them allows her to express her grief. Although Rosa is a long way from recovery at the end of the story, we can begin to see how her scars will hopefully begin to fade.


I would not fully understood this novel without the in class discussions we had about it. On a surface level to me I would have seen a very short glimpse at a tragic story, and then seen noting but Rosa acting like a crazy person. Thanks to the discussions we have had in depth about these characters and the events, I can see the deep hidden levels of emotion and suffering that Rosa experiences, and it became a much more powerful story to me.