The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick - Summary

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The Shawl

Rosa, her infant daughter Magda and her niece Stella are in a concentration camp. They are all starving and malnourished. Rosa no longer lactates and Magda has been sucking on it as a source of comfort and, it seems to Rosa, nutrition, and consequently it seems sacred and magical to Rosa. Stella takes the shawl away, upon which Magda walks out of the barracks where Rosa has hidden her, ostensibly looking for the shawl. Rosa deliberates whether to get Magda or the shawl first. She gets the shawl but a Nazi soldier notices Magda and hurls her against an electric fence. Rosa, fearing for her life, does not move. She "drank Magda's shawl until it dried".


Cynthia Ozick

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