The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick
"The Shawl" by Cynthia Ozick is a poignant and harrowing narrative that explores themes of motherhood, survival, and the psychological impact of trauma during the Holocaust. The story centers on Rosa, a Polish Jew, who, along with her infant daughter Magda and her niece Stella, is forced to march under the duress of Nazi oppression. Rosa's shawl becomes a symbol of both protection and desperation; it conceals Magda and represents a lifeline for Rosa, who struggles with the dual horrors of starvation and the fear of losing her child. As the story unfolds, Rosa's relationship with the shawl intensifies, reflecting her desperate hope and poignant sorrow.
The narrative takes a tragic turn when Magda, having miraculously survived, reveals her presence during a roll call in a concentration camp, leading to a heartbreaking climax. The tension between nurturing instincts and the harsh reality of their situation culminates in a powerful, emotional confrontation with loss, as Rosa witnesses her daughter’s demise. The story is laden with symbolism and profound psychological depth, inviting readers to reflect on the complexities of human resilience in the face of unimaginable suffering. Through Rosa's eyes, readers are drawn into the stark realities of life during the Holocaust, underscoring the fragility of hope and the enduring impact of grief.
The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick
First published: 1980
Type of plot: Psychological
Time of work: The early 1940's
Locale: A Nazi concentration camp
Principal Characters:
Rosa Lublin , a Polish Jewish prisoner of the NazisMagda , her infant daughterStella , her niece, also a prisoner
The Story
Rosa, a Polish Jew who has been captured by the Nazis, desperately secures her baby, Magda, in a shawl, but Rosa's fourteen-year-old niece, Stella, covets that comfort. The three are part of a group of starving people who are being forced to march—presumably to a concentration camp. Rosa worries what might become of her child: If Magda is regarded as "Aryan," Rosa may give her away in a village. Because Rosa's body cannot supply the milk that would sustain Magda, Rosa considers the shawl that hides the baby to be magic. Magda seems to live by sucking it, and her breath smells of cinnamon and almonds.
Some time later, Magda, miraculously still alive, is old enough to walk, and she, Rosa, and Stella are in a concentration camp. Concealing Magda is more difficult now. Rosa even suspects that Stella might devour the infant or that another prisoner might inform on Rosa for concealing a child or steal and eat Magda. Magda is not stolen or eaten, however, but meets her death after Stella steals the shawl. Magda runs out of the barracks, into the light of the open space where the prisoners assemble for roll call. To Rosa's surprise, Magda is howling—revealing that she is not deaf but also dooming herself by drawing the authorities' attention to her. Rosa hesitates: should she first try to retrieve her child, or go first to get the shawl with which she hopes she will be able to conceal her?
Having decided that it would be futile to retrieve Magda without having a means to protect her, Rosa first looks for the shawl. She finds it covering the sleeping Stella. Rosa grabs the shawl and rushes outside, where she sometimes has heard lamenting voices in the electrified fence. There she sees Magda riding high on someone's shoulder. The person carrying Magda is a soldier, who hurls the child to her death against the fence. As horrifying as it is to watch the murder through Rosa's eyes and thoughts, the reader must also experience all that Rosa cannot do. She must bear the sight of the remains of her undernourished child at the foot of the fence, and do nothing. Rosa must listen to those haunting voices in the fence urging her to collect the body, and instead survive by refusing to reveal herself as the mother of a child who has been hidden. Rosa must endure the screams that fill her body and make no sound. To stifle her horror, she chooses the object that both Magda and Stella have craved. Rosa stuffs the magic shawl into her own mouth until she tastes "the cinnamon and almond depth of Magda's saliva" and drinks of it "until it dried."
Sources for Further Study
Alkana, Joseph. "Do We Not Know the Meaning of Aesthetic Gratification? Cynthia Ozick's The Shawl, The Akedah, and the Ethics of Holocaust Literary Aesthetics." Modern Fiction Studies 43 (Winter, 1997): 963-990. Discusses Ozick's use of the midrashic approach in The Shawl to emphasize the irreconcilable cultural and historical tensions that resulted from the Holocaust. Combining fiction and parable, Ozick's novel preserves personal, social, and historical experiences to create a recounting of the Holocaust.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Views: Cynthia Ozick. New York: Chelsea House, 1986. This volume of essays gathers together a representative selection of the best criticism so far available of Ozick's fiction, arranged by subject in chronological order of its original publication.
Cohen, Sarah Blacher. Cynthia Ozick's Comic Art: From Levity to Liturgy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994. Offers an overview of Ozick's use of comedy in her short fiction. Chapters focus on single or multiple works, including The Shawl. Includes a selected bibliography of other critical works.
Friedman, Lawrence S. Understanding Cynthia Ozick. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1991.
Kakutani, Michiko. "Cynthia Ozick on the Holocaust, Idolatry, and Loss." The New York Times, September 5, 1989, p. C17.
Kauvar, Elaine M. Cynthia Ozick's Fiction: Tradition and Invention. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.
Kielsky, Vera Emuna. Inevitable Exiles: Cynthia Ozick's View of the Precariousness of Jewish Existence in a Gentile Society. New York: Peter Lang, 1989.
Lowin, Joseph. Cynthia Ozick. Boston: Twayne, 1988. A good overall introduction to Ozick's thought and art. Places her within the Jewish American literary tradition and discusses "The Shawl" within the context of her other short fiction. Includes an annotated bibliography of additional criticism on Ozick.
Lowin, Joseph. "Cynthia Ozick, Rewriting Herself: The Road from The Shawl' to Rosa.'" In Since Flannery O'Connor: Essays on the Contemporary American Short Story, edited by Loren Logsdon and Charles W. Mayer. Macomb: Western Illinois University, 1987. Lowin argues that, like the French symbolists, Ozick paints not the thing itself but its effect. Discusses how each of the three major characters uses the shawl as a life preserver. Describes "Rosa" as being within the tradition of Ozick's earlier midrashic writing such as "The Pagan Rabbi."
Mehegan, David. "Turning a Page: Thirty-Eight Years into Her Career, Cynthia Ozick Has Her First Book Tour." Boston Globe, November 15, 2004, p. B5.
Ozick, Cynthia. Portrait of the Artist as a Bad Character, and Other Essays on Writing. London: Pimlico, 1996.
Powers, Peter Kerry. "Disruptive Memories: Cynthia Ozick, Assimilation, and the Invented Past." MELUS 20 (Fall, 1995): 79-97. Although this essay does not focus on The Shawl, it does present a revealing view of Ozick's thoughts on the threat of cultural incorporation in literature. Ozick points out that Jewish American writers have generally achieved success by avoiding that which is historically Jewish in favor of the short-lived idea of Jewish racial group identity.
Scrafford, Barbara. "Nature's Silent Scream: A Commentary on Cynthia Ozick's The Shawl." Critique 31 (Fall, 1989): 11-15. Claims that the short sentences of "The Shawl" and its concise syntax tell the story with a minimum of rhetoric. Argues that it derives most of its power from its ironic contrast between a barbarous place, where lives end, and motherhood, where life begins. The story is a skeleton itself, says Scrafford, for it is almost pure form, pure shape.
Strandberg, Victor. Greek Mind/Jewish Soul: The Conflicted Art of Cynthia Ozick. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996.