Truth In Cynthia Ozick's 'The Shawl'

The horrific tragedy of the Holocaust is a story that everyone unfortunately knows. The stories of inhumane acts and unspeakable acts of hate have been told thousands of times. But these experiences are just that- unspeakable. For many, the pain is too great and the wounds are still fresh. For the ones who choose to express their sorrows through writing, it seems that the evils done to the characters cannot even be told plainly. It is often told through metaphor or in vague terms, leaving it up to the reader to examine and experience the story. In “The Shawl,” Cynthia Ozick tells the story of a mother struggling to keep her baby alive in a voice that conveys the meaning poetically, while speaking the truth. From the very first paragraph Ozick
begins to describe her characters using beautiful words and images to disguise and muddle their disgusting conditions. Rosa is described as ‘a walking cradle,’ and ‘a floating angel.’ Both of these descriptions are forms of personification, but neither are human. Similarly, baby Magda is described as ‘a squirrel in a nest,’ and as having a ‘pocket mirror of a face.’ The concept of an infant having a pocket mirror for a face is fascinating. At such a young age, Magda’s face already reflects and shows the face of someone who has been through so much, while maintaining her childlike eyes and hair. Using these types of phrases to describe Rosa reinforce the dehumanization of the Nazis, for neither a cradle nor a mirror are exactly human. Death is a central and obvious theme in “The Shawl.” It is indirectly referenced in the description of the characters: Magda’s tooth is ominously said to be “an elfin tombstone of white marble gleaming there.” This foreshadows the untimely death of the baby, and perhaps shows the stark contrast between the gleaming tombstone which is the proper way to honor a baby, and the gruesome fate that concludes the story. Rosa’s malnourished body is also described as “ a dead volcano,” to say that her breasts should be full of milk, but instead cannot even provide for her child. The end of the story is haunting, and the chill of death lingers with the reader long after the story is over. As Magda is thrown into the electric fence, Ozick uses the phrase “a butterfly touching a silver vine.” Although this language does not describe in detail the events of Magda’s death, to me it becomes even more horrifying, equating the life of child to the short lifespan of a butterfly, and calling an electric fence designed to kill and hurt “a silver vine,” which suggests beauty and the giving of life. As shown in “The Shawl,” the words and phrases an author chooses to use are essential to the way readers interpret the story. The metaphors and figurative language drive the images into the reader’s head, and a story is instantly more meaningful and personal.