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Cynthia Ozick's 'The Shawl'

313 Words2 Pages
In Cynthia Ozick’s intriguing short story, “The Shawl”, baby Magda, wrapped carefully in a shawl of linen, and fourteen-year-old Rosa--Magda’s “mother”--are simply walking for an unknown reason on a dirt road during the Holocaust in World War II. Stella, Magda’s older cousin, is traveling with Rosa and Magda. The three girls were feeling extremely weak and frail because of the excessive starvation and overwhelming malnutrition. However, Stella was awfully jealous of her baby cousin for three simple reasons: 1) Magda has a shawl to wrap herself in and she wants it for herself, 2) She notices her “round” belly, and 3) Magda is Aryan--she looks very much like the “perfect German”. And since Magda’s Aryan, Stella believes that someone like Magda
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