Motherhood And Symbolism In Cynthia Ozick's 'The Shawl'

“The Shawl” by Cynthia Ozick is short story in which a mother, her child, and her niece are described as they walk through a concentration camp during the Holocaust. This work is well known for its prominent use of figurative language. For a story about the Holocaust, it may seem odd as to why this language was used instead of a factual style of writing which is common in these types of stories. Ozick uses figurative language excessively in attempt to describe such a horrific situation. Some may criticize the author and even take offense to the way the story was written, but it does not have the same effect when told differently. Most accounts of the Holocaust are hard to comprehend, even for those who experienced it themselves. Ozick stated in an interview that even if everyone “were to spend the next five thousand years absorbing and assimilating the documents, it still

In the short story “Marigolds”, the author, Eugenia Collier, uses several key events throughout the short story to represent the unseen cage that the main character, Lizabeth, is trapped in, and ultimately breaks. The story is set in a shanty town, likely taking place during the Great Depression. Throughout the story, Lizabeth goes through a difficult stage in life, a stage in which she is in conflict about whether she wants to be a carefree, innocent child, or an educated, compassionate adult. The climax of the story, when Lizabeth tears and rips up Miss Lottie’s marigolds, is such an emotional moment for Lizabeth that she finally completes her transition to adulthood, understands her endless cycle of poverty, and breaks the final bar of the cage.

The mid 20th century was a time of grief and genocide in Europe, which created a life of anger and despair for those who were affected. Family was so important during the holocaust as it was the only way that someone would be able to handle this time. Elise Wiesel, a survivor of the holocaust, created a work of art with his personal account called Night about his journey during the 1940’s. He uses a plethora of literary devices to convey a theme of strong family bond within his book. During the 1940’s, the Nazi Party in Germany created an era of anti-Semitism and genocide which involved the lives of Jews living in western Europe. During this time in Germany, over 6 million Jews died and only a few lived to tell

The Holocaust, yet another unpleasant time in history tainted with the blood and suffering of man. Human beings tortured, executed and starved for hatred and radical ideas. Yet with many tragedies there are survivors, those who refused to die on another man’s command. These victims showed enormous willpower, they overcame human degradation and tragedies that not only pushed their beliefs in god, but their trust in fellow people. It was people like Elie Wiesel author of “Night”, Eva Galler,Sima Gleichgevicht-Wasser, and Solomon Radasky that survived, whose’ mental and physical capabilities were pushed to limits that are difficult to conceive. Each individual experiences were different, but their survival tales not so far-reaching to where the fundamental themes of fear, family, religion and self-preservation played a part in surviving. Although some of these themes weren’t always so useful for survival.

Cynthia Ozick’s story “The Shawl” is told in a way were the readers feel hopelessness and despair. The characters are put in a situation so hopeless there’s no way that they can escape. This text at first begins with confusion, however as you read more you start to put the pieces to gether like a puzzle. Magda the only character who thrives in the story, and still she becomes a victim of the harsh environment around her. At it’s core this text tells of how you can be thrown in an concentration camp, treated as a lower human being, just because your not the perfect white color, and starved to near death, but no amount of oppression could drain the humanity you have inside. Although Stella is a counter to this because she is bitter, and envious

The shawl symbolizes the necessity for illusion as defense against struggle in uncomfortable circumstances. In “The Shawl”, Ozick highlights the process in which said illusion can easily shift into a dehumanizing delusion. The characters share their perception of the “magic shawl” (517) as a source of hope and comfort. For Magda, it makes her “dumb” (518) to the reality she lives in. Although the infant’s use of the shawl is understandable, Stella and Rosa’s belief in it is a sign of desperation, regression, and the breakdown of rationality in the face of extreme deprivation and loss. Stella suffers inadequate mothering and as a result desires the shawls powers to revert to infancy as an escape from responsibility. For Rosa, the shawl acts as an illusionary umbilical cord between her child. Once cut, she is stripped of her motherhood and is forced into a delusionary sense of helplessness. In dire

Everyone experiences emotional and physiological obstacles in their life. However, these obstacles are incomparable to the magnitude of the obstacles the prisoners of the Holocaust faced every day. In his memoir, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, illustrates the horrors of the concentration camps and their mental tool. Over the course of Night, Wiesel demonstrates, that exposure to an uncaring, hostile world leads to destruction of faith and identity.

Life is a precious thing, and it is so precious that some people will undergo severe anguish to hold on to it. During the 1930’s and 1940’s in Germany, people of the Jewish religion were diabolically oppressed and slaughtered, just for their beliefs. Some Jews went to extreme measures to evade capture by the German law enforcement, hoping to hold on to life. Krystyna Chiger was only a small child when her family, along with a group of other desperate Jews, descended into the malignant sewers to avoid the Germans. After living in the abysmal sewers for fourteen months, her group emerged, and when she became an adult, she authored a novel about her time in the sewer. When analyzing the literary elements utilized in her novel, The Girl in the Green Sweater, one can determine how tone and mood, point of view, and conflict convey the message of struggle and survival that was experienced during the Holocaust, and how they help the reader to understand and relate.

Between Dignity and Despair, a book written by Marion A. Kaplan, published in 1998, gives us a portrait of Jewish life in Nazi Germany by the astounding memoirs, diaries, interviews with survivors, and letters of Jewish women and men. The book is written in chronological order of events, from the daily life of German Jewish families prior to when the Holocaust began to the days when rights were completely taken away; from the beginning of forced labor and exile to the repercussion of the war. Kaplan tries to include details from each significant event during the time of the Holocaust. Kaplan

Each of these histories reveal a story of suffering that is endured by both Gentile and Jew, but also a story of humanity and salvation. In Five Chimneys: A woman Survivor’s True Story of Auschwitz, Olga Lengyel tells of her family assisting other Jews fleeing the Nazi military. Later, after her own ordeals in Auschwitz, she was saved by citizens in a small Polish village. An essay written by Vera Laska is included in Women and the Holocaust: Different Voices, which is an anthology of essays about women in the Holocaust. In addition to the many stories of survivors and rescuers, I am using several scholarly articles

In 1983 Aharon Appelfeld published a work of fiction titled Tzili that closely resembled his own personal Holocaust experiences. This work of fiction revolves around a maturing teen who is alone and on the run during the Holocaust. In Tzili, Appelfeld brings to life his characters, which include Tzili, Katrina, Mark, and Linda. Throughout this literary analysis Appelfelds’ memoir Story of a Life will be used to access the parallels that exist between Appelfeld’s own personal experience and his fictional work Tzili.

In the short story The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick, we are introduced to three characters who are facing death surrounding them in a concentration camp. We are introduced to Rosa, Stella and Magda. Rosa is the mother in the story of Magda, Magda is a young baby whose odds of survival is not very good. We are also introduced to Stella, who is a demon in the mind of Rosa. Stella represents the life that Rosa once had, one where she did not have a child and did not have to put someone’s life before them self. Stella appears to have all the human features, have emotions and has human flaws, but she taunts Rosa while she is in the concentration camp. Stella also brings Rosa something that she could not do herself, the feeling of relief of a horrible

An influential theme displayed throughout the book was the constant use of music, theater, and the arts. Mariatu used the arts to express her emotions and to distract herself from the conglomeration of agony in her village. In the first passage, Mariatu believed Victor was being authentic when he said theater assisted with coping. The second quotation displayed Mariatu releasing her emotions by dancing. She feels free during this experience, which helps her tolerate the next few weeks. In the third excerpt, Mariatu is woken by her “sisters” with music. The siblings began to serenade each other with songs from Mariatu’s old village, which surfaced memories and made her yearn to go home and see her family.

A young girl of 14, Stella barely holds on to her own life in the concentration camp, she desperately seeks comfort and protection. Like many others, Stella’s deplorable shape reverts her to an infantile state of mind, she constantly wants to be comforted, soothed and cared for. Stella is “jealous of Magda” (paragraph 1) and wants the shawl to herself. Like Magda, she wants “to be wrapped in a shawl” like “a round infant in arms” (paragraph 1). Although she is forbidden to touch the shawl, Stella endlessly longs for it because she is always cold. Rosa believes that the cold has gotten to Stella’s heart. Not caring about the consequences, famished and callous Stella steals Magda’s shawl for warmth. Although she only benefits briefly from the shawl, Stella’s desperate need for comfort results in the death of Magda.

In the first shawl by Cynthia Ozick, the author sets the setting during the Holocaust. Ozick started to describe the characters, like " the Star sewed into Rosa's coat." She later she reveals that the main characters were Jews. Rosa, a mother of two, Stella and Magda, Magda was the baby. Rosa faces many dilemmas throughout the whole story. All she could think about is how can she keep Magda safe because Magda does not look like other Jews. Rosa describes Magda's