The Shawl and Rosa by Cynthia Ozick - Analysis

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Themes

·       Hunger and malnourishment
·       Physical alteration
·       Hatred of Stella
·       Superstition regarding the shawl
·       Aryan appearance
·       Shawl as a source of comfort
·       Decrepitude
·       Rosa's hypocrisy toward Stella
·       Contempt toward old age
·       Superiority of Polish
·       Snobbery and elitism
·       Miami and old people equated with the concentration camps and Jews – but self deluded and voluntary
·       Chauvinism
·       Criticism of psychology
·       Criticism of American treatment of holocaust survivors
·       Criticism of American Jews
·       Gay hatred
·       Rosa's hatred against old world Jews
·       Snobbery and distinction between herself and Polish Yiddish speaking Jews who are not immersed in Polish culture
·       The past (represented by Magda and isolation) vs. the present (represented by the phone)


Response

·       The phone seems to defeat Magda. Thus the future seems to defeat the past. Rosa has a deep-set suspicion of people, seeing how she feels she was betrayed by her own niece; toward the end of the tale she begins for the first time to let someone else in (a balanced relationship that is actually possible – Persky is older than Rosa and Rosa is crazy)


Style and devices

·       Figurative colorful language        


People and Places

·       Rosa Lublin
·       Stella
·       Magda
·       Simon Persky
·       The Cuban receptionist
·       Miami, Florida
·       New York (where Stella lives)
·       Hotel Marie Louise
·       Mr. Finkelstein

Cynthia Ozick

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