The Shawl (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Cynthia Ozick
- First Published: 1989
- Type of Work: Short fiction
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: The 1940’s and early 1980’s
- Setting: Germany and Miami, Florida
- Genres: Psychological fiction, Social realism, Short fiction
- Subjects: Mothers, Parents and children, Prisoners, Murder or homicide, Europe or Europeans, 1940’s, World War II, Guilt, 1980’s, Child abuse, Mental illness, Obsession, Jews or Jewish life, War, Florida, Nazism or Nazis, Germany or German people, Holocaust, Jewish, Poland or Polish people, Concentration camps, Joy or sorrow
- Locales: Germany, Miami, FL
Characters Discussed
“The Shawl,” 1980
Rosa Lubin, a young Polish refugee in a Nazi concentration camp with her infant, Magda, and her fourteen- year-old niece, Stella. They have been so brutalized that they are hardly recognizable as human. Rosa feels no hunger or pain, but rather light, as if she were an angel in a trance. Her only concern is to keep Magda concealed and thus alive. When Magda is discovered and her life is in danger, Rosa can do nothing but watch in horrified silence.
Magda, Rosa’s infant daughter, who has the swollen belly of the...
[The entire page is 1167 words long]
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