Short Story Explication

3 Pages 774 Words

Rosa: The Portrait of a Jew
in Ozick’s “The Shawl”
Countless stories have been written on the trials and tribulations of what the Jewish people went through while being forced into the concentration camps. The pictures brought to mind are nearly starved and hopeless people lined up for roll call, beaten or even killed on any guard’s slightest whim. Ozick certainly brings to life the hardships and heartbreak that one family faces while walking to and living in the Nazi concentration camp. Rosa, the desperate mother of two in Ozick’s “The Shawl,” is a classic example of a person who has realized that all hope is lost.
Rosa is walking to the concentration camp with Stella and has the infant Magda hidden away “[...]between sore breasts” (Ozick 675). She is aware of what the guards would do to the child if they ever find out that Rosa has her. Rosa with her “[...]bleak complexion, dark like cholera[...]” sneaks glances at baby Magda, who has “[...]eyes blue as air, smooth feathers of hair nearly as yellow as the Star sewn into Rosa’s coat” (676). She dreams of giving Magda away, but she knows that if she left the line long enough to push Magda into a spectator’s arms, the guards will shoot her. Also, she worries that perhaps the person will not accept Magda. “She might be surprised or afraid; she might drop the shawl, and Magda would fall out and strike her head and die” (676). With these two thoughts holding her back, Rosa walks on hiding baby Magda from the world, knowing that she will be hiding the child for the rest of her life.
By the time that Magda turns fifteen months old, she has learned to walk, just not very well. Her belly “[...]was fat with air, full and round” (677). Rosa looks at Stella and realizes exactly how unfeeling and bitter she has become.
They were in a place without pity, all pity was annihilated in Rosa, she
looked at Stella’s bones without pity. Sh...