The Shawl (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Cynthia Ozick
- First Published: 1989
- Type of Plot: Psychological
- Time of Work: The early 1940's
- Setting: A Nazi concentration camp
- Principal Characters: Rosa Lublin, Magda, Stella
- 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
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...
[The entire page is 1906 words long]
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