ipl-logo

Symbolism In Cynthia Ozick's 'The Shawl'

1180 Words5 Pages

Take a second and imagine, imagine yourself being starved, tortured, and enslaved. What would you do to save your children and yourself? In Cynthia Ozick's story “The Shawl” we meet Rosa and her two daughters Stella, who is fourteen, and Magda an infant who is being concealed, on their grueling march to a concentration camp. The Nazi’s are unaware of Magda’s existence due to Rosa hiding her under the shawl as they are marching. Rosa is faced with the difficulty of keeping her daughters alive, while trying to survive herself. Through the point of view of Rosa, Ozick uses symbolism to capture the many different coping mechanisms used to survive the horrors of being a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp and through her selflessness becomes a Christlike heroine. Rosa’s imagination gives positive characteristics to situations and objects to help cope with traumatic events such as, the magical properties of the shawl, the grass outside …show more content…

Stella is resentful and angry. She does not try to escape the reality she is faced with but allows it to negatively affect her attitude towards her sister and her mother. For example Ozick explains “Then Stella took the shawl away and made Magda die. Afterward Stella said: ”I was cold.” And Afterward she was always cold, always. The cold went into her heart: Rosa saw that Stella’s heart was cold.”(300) Through this we see that Rosa has come to realize that in the dire circumstances of their situation Stella has come to really only care for herself not her family unlike Rosa. This is also a good example of where it shows the contrast of Rosa and Stella so much so that Rosa fears that Stella is going to eat Magda. “And Rosa thought how Stella gazed at Magda like a young cannibal.” (299) Showing us that the way we handle our strife in life is dependent upon our perspective. Which helps to show the tremendous difference between Stella and

Show More
Related
772 Words | 4 Pages

How would you feel if your home country declared you an enemy because of your heritage and physical appearance, and then forced you to live in a fenced in facility, surrounded by barbed wire, similar to prison, for four years? On February 19, 1942, this exact event took place, and 110,000 to 120,000 Japanese Americans were forced out of their homes and into internment camps located around the country. In the novels When the Emperor was Divine, a fiction piece written by Julie Otsuka, and Farewell to Manzanar, a non-fictitious book written by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, the authors describe the lives and struggles Japanese families faced while living in these places. Even though the two novels use different rhetorical strategies throughout the

Read More
719 Words | 3 Pages

“I shall die a heroine, but you shall die like a dog.”, Mala Zimetbaum spoke these words right before her death in 1944. Mala was a victim of the Holocaust all because she was a fifteen-year-old Jewish girl. She saved so many but was sentenced to death at twenty-six. Mala Zimetbaum’s life before the Holocaust was good with her family, but when the Holocaust started her life changed forever, significantly when it ended. Preparatory to the Holocaust Mala Zimetbaum had an everyday life.

Read More
1162 Words | 5 Pages

Stella had not visited her family since she and her husband moved houses across town because her husband was not comfortable with Stella going to what he considered a sketchier part of town. Stella recognizes that she can make her own decisions though, and that family is a huge part of her life she had been missing so despite what her husband says, she goes to visit her family. Once she arrives she calls her husband and tells him, “Jeff, I’m at Kookoo’s and we’re going to stay here” (Vermette 207). Stella finally recognizes and allows herself to do what is best for her, being with and taking care of her family, and she finally regains her self-worth.

Read More
1152 Words | 5 Pages

After going through so much, many people do not have the same mindset as they did before. Being tortured and watching others being tortured changes a person’s life, especially Elie’s, his father’s, Moshe the Beadle’s, and Rabbi Eliahou’s. Elie Wiesel, the author of Night, shares his own experience of going through a concentration camp, and it is clear that many things in his life changed

Read More
1329 Words | 6 Pages

(Vermette 267). Stella’s anxious thoughts arise as she wrestles with a sense of personal responsibility for the situation as feels she could have intervened and prevented the situation further than with the police alone. Stella's increased worry pervades her being, as the realization that she made the wrong decision, despite it being the best option at the time for her own protection, heightens her guilt. As a result, Emily's trauma has a far-reaching impact on others, demonstrating its domineering implications. In conclusion, although the family was distant during the physical events of the situation they still took on

Read More
1440 Words | 6 Pages

The Significance of Loved Ones “‘The only thing that keeps me alive,” he kept saying, “is to know that Reizel and the little ones are still alive. Were it not for them, I would give up’” (Wiesel, 45). This is said by a Jewish man attempting to fight an onerous and exhausting fight against death. His family was his will to live.

Read More
465 Words | 2 Pages

The Holocaust is one of the darkest times in history. The Holocaust was started by Hitler, defining people if they were Jewish, part Jewish, or Aryan. Little did these people know that it would get a lot worse for Jewish people after a few years. In a few years innocent people were being sent to gas chambers just for being Jewish.

Read More
1085 Words | 5 Pages

That is why he hates Blanche because she is not the same as the girls he has seen. He sees her as a threat in the sense that she will ruin the marriage between Stella and Stanley. However, he has feelings of self conscious and feels threatened because he feels like she can ruin him. He hates that Stella and Blanche were always wealthy and he feels as if they look down on him for being poor. He does not feeling submissive which is why he reacts harshly most of the time.

Read More
718 Words | 3 Pages

When he is questioned by Blanche in front of his friends he throws a fit, in a way that could be interpreted into showing off for his friends. He takes his anger out on Stella and hits her. After Stella leaves with Blanche, he calls for her nonstop until she finally comes back to him. He needs Stella just as much as she needs

Read More
1300 Words | 6 Pages

In the span of a lifetime one often faces many adversities that stand within their path.  While some challenges will be overcome easily, others will take a lot more tenacity. When in the face of adversity it is key not to give up. One should always strive to persevere through their hardships, no matter how severe they seem to be. The author of the memoir “Night” Elie Wiesel, vividly describes his experiences in the concentration camp of Auschwitz.

Read More
1697 Words | 7 Pages

(10.225). towards the end of the play Stella, Mitch, and Stanley play a role in imposing reality into her allusions. As Stella calls for the Doctor to pick Blanche up it rips her away from her fantasies with Shep Huntleigh. When Mitch reveals to Blanche that she isn't pure enough to take home to his

Read More
994 Words | 4 Pages

(Ozick). Stella is jealous of the protection Magda receives concealed in the shawl, and makes the choice to take it to help her survive with no remorse. The shawl even saves Rosa when she uses it to stifle the screams and control her impulse to run after Magda as she was killed, an action that would have surely resulted in her own

Read More
660 Words | 3 Pages

In her short story “Marigolds”, Eugenia Collier, tells the story of a young woman named Lizabeth growing up in rural Maryland during the Depression. Lizabeth is on the verge of becoming an adult, but one moment suddenly makes her feel more woman than child and has an impact on the rest of her life. Through her use of diction, point of view, and symbolism, Eugenia Collier develops the theme that people can create beauty in their lives even in the poorest of situations. Through her use of the stylistic device diction, Eugenia Collier is able to describe to the reader the beauty of the marigolds compared to the drab and dusty town the story is set in.

Read More
1413 Words | 6 Pages

Stanley thought money was going to fix the issue. Blanche still continued to get into Stellas head about him but she wasn’t trying to hear it. Blanches independency was what created space between her and Stella because of their opposite views on situations. And due to that fact, Stella saw Blanche as a judgemental

Read More
1561 Words | 7 Pages

In the short story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker shows the conflicts and struggles with people of the African-American culture in America. The author focuses on the members of the Johnson family, who are the main characters. In the family there are 2 daughters and a mother. The first daughter is named Maggie, who had been injured in a house fire has been living with her mom. Her older sister is Dee, who grew up with natural beauty wanted to have a better life than her mother and sister.

Read More

More about Symbolism In Cynthia Ozick's 'The Shawl'

Open Document