Three Jewish Characters In The Shawl By Cynthia Ozick

In the short story “The Shawl” author Cynthia Ozick introduces three Jewish characters on a forced march to a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the systematic state-sponsored persecution of six million Jews by the Nazi regime. Cynthia Ozick is an American novelist and shorty story writer whose works define the challenge of remaining Jewish in American life. Ozick uses many different themes in her stories but her main theme is the Holocaust and its aftermath. Although “The Shawl” was created to show the love and determination a mother has to keep her daughter alive, sometimes it may not be enough. The shawl opens up with three Jewish characters, Rosa, Magda and Stella on a march to a Nazi concentration camp. Magda, the infant, is Rosa’s daughter and Stella is Rosa’s niece. Magda’s appearance wasn’t like her

In the text Ozick states, “The face, very round, a pocket mirror of a face: but it was not Rosa’s bleak complexion, dark like cholera…eyes as blue air, smooth feathers of hair nearly as yellow as the star sewn into Rosa’s coat. You could think she was one of their babies” (Ozick 516). No one knows that Magda exists because Rosa keeps her wrapped up in a shawl, afraid that if she is seen then she may be killed. Rosa is so malnourished that she hasn’t been able to produce enough milk for Magda to drink but the shawl is how Rosa keeps the infant comfortable, warm and quiet. Stella has become very jealous of Magda and Rosa is certain that Stella is waiting for Magda to die so she can eat her. Rosa knows that the shawl is magic because it has kept Magda alive for so long and she is thankful for that but things make a turn for the worst when Stella takes the shawl away from Magda. Stella states that she took the shawl because she was cold and this causes Magda to run around