The Significants of the Shawl

In the book “The Shawl” by Cynthia Ozick, is a book that are based on fictional characters that experience true events. This book takes place during the holocaust and goes into great detail about what had went on during this tragic period. The book is broken up into to two parts; the beginning chapter which I have read is called The Shawl same as the title of the book. This title is significant because the author wraps the story around a baby and an important shawl.

The Shawl is important because Rosa uses it to cover the baby Magda. Rosa knows that if Magda is found she will be killed. Rosa and Magda became completely dependent on this shawl. For example, as stated in the book, “the shawl was Magda’s own baby, her pet, her little sister. She tangled herself up in it and sucked on one of the corners when she wanted to be very still. Then Stella took the shawl away and made Magda die. Not only did the baby Magda depend on the shawl for something to give her love to but she depended on it to keep her secure. Rosa depended on the shawl as well; she expected the shawl to keep Magda secure and fed. For instance, “Magda relinquished Rosa’s teats first the left, then the right; both were cracked, not a sniff of milk. The duct-crevice extinct, a dead volcano, blind eye, chill hole, so Magda took the corner of the shawl and milked it instead. She sucked and sucked, flooding the threads with wetness. The shawl’s good flavor, milk of linen.” When Rosa was not able to feed Magda she looked to the shawl for nourishment. Rosa also depended on the shawl to hold her sorrow. For instance, at the end of the first part of the book, Rosa looks to the shawl to hold in her pain when Magda died. “So she took Magda’s shawl and filled her own mouth with it, stuffed it in and stuffed it in, until she was swallowing up the wolf’s screech and tasting the cinnamon and almond depth of Magda’s saliva; and Rosa drank Magda’s shawl until it dried.

The shawl was an object that played a big part in the first part of the book. It became a necessity to Rosa and Magda and for that one moment when Stella stole the shawl everything seemed too changed.