“Then Stella
took the shawl away and made Magda
die.”
The horrors found in
“The Shawl” by Cynthia Ozick culminate in man’s inhumanity to man. During World War II,
the Nazis removed people from their homes and possessions. Many times, they also took
their lives, particularly if the family were Jewish. Usually, the family was initially
placed in a concentration camp far from their
countries.
The characters in this story include a trio of
females--Rosa, the older girl; her baby, Magda; and Stella, Rosa’s fourteen year old
niece—who have walked a long way from their home in a cold march toward the destination
of a concentration camp.
Normally, Magda would have
already been killed. The Nazis immediately killed all small babies; however, Rosa hid
her baby in a large shawl that she wore over her shoulder. From the shawl, Rosa could
feed Magda and allow the baby to sleep without being
noticed.
Horror abounds in the story.
The beginning of the
terror
Rosa’s milk dries up, and she teaches
Magda to suck on the corners of the shawl for comfort. No one touches the shawl but
Magda and her mother.
Rosa often saw Stella staring at
Magda as though she would like to kill her and eat her
thighs.
Rosa kept Magda alive for fifteen months in the
barracks.
Magda learns to walk; Rosa knew then that Magda
did not have long to live.
Stella constantly complained
about hunger. Stella’s heart was cold as well as her
body.
Finally, Stella steals Magda’s shawl without Rosa’s
knowledge.
The final
terror
Looking for her shawl, Magda goes outside
into the area where the Nazi soldiers can see her. Rosa heard Magda for the first time
yell out:
‘Maaaaaaa---‘ and again
‘Maaaaaa…aaa!’
Rosa hurries
into the barracks looking for the shawl to lure Magda back inside. Stella was sleeping
under Magda’s shawl. Rosa jerks it off and runs to the door to show
Magda.
Rosa comes out into the open air. The ironic
vision she sees through the electrified fence is flowers, butterflies. She could hear
the hum of the electricity going through the fence.
Magda
was slung over a soldier’s shoulder with her arms held out toward her mother. The
soldier was taking Magda in the other direction. Rosa could see a glimmer of light
reflecting off of the soldier’s helmet that carried her baby. She could hear Magda’s
cries: Maaamaa.
The black uniformed soldier continues
walking down past twelve barracks. Rosa could barely see Magda now. Without warning, the
soldier flung Magda up into the air. To Rosa, she looked like a butterfly. She could
see her feathered blonde hair and ballooned stomach as it sprawled out and crashed into
the fence.
The sounds of the electric fence went crazy as
the fence burned the flesh of the baby. When she could see Magda’s body again, it was
just burned sticks. Rosa wanted to go and pick up her
baby.
In her heart, she knew that the soldiers would shoot
and kill her. She stuffed Magda’s shawl in her mouth preventing the screams in her
throat from emerging. Rosa sucked on the shawl tasting Magda and drinking up the juices
of her child.
The mother must now live forever with the
horrific vision of seeing her child electrocuted. Her niece began the end of Magda.
How would she ever forgive Stella?
The Nazis exemplified
the motif: man in certain circumstances is capable of treating his fellow man with
extreme cruelty and evil. With no feeling at all, a mother loses her beloved child
forever.
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