Cold

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Stella, cold, cold, the coldness of hell (Ozick, 86). These few words begin Cynthia Ozicks chilling story, The Shawl. The story takes place on a death march to a concentration camp and later in the camp itself. The opening words establish the characterization of Stella very clearly; Rosa, the protagonist, sees her niece Stella as the murderer of Rosas baby daughter Magda, because Stella, always cold in the camps, took Magdas blanket - the shawl - to warm herself, causing the baby to be discovered and killed.

When we first meet Rosa, she has become physically decrepit. Her mind, however, is still intact. Despite the dislocating effect of the march itself and the foul treatment, she is still capable of logical thought and rational choice. Thus, she conceives a plan to give away Magda, a child she has been carrying wrapped in a shawl. After thinking the plan through, however, Rosa realizes its impossibility and rejects it.

Here we have the operation of a rational mind. Rosa's deterioration proceeds subtly throughout the story. The first mark of deterioration occurs soon after the incident above. Suddenly we are told that, it was a magic shawl (Ozick 87), and this idea is pursued. Ozicks narrator shows the world through Rosas eyes, making us think that Rosa believes in magic. The fact that it doesnt unconditionally protect Magda, but instead is the cause of her discovery by Nazi guards, is evidence of the lack of the shawl's magical properties. Rosa's belief that the shawl is magic quietly reveals the beginning of her deterioration.

Rosas way of seeing is communicated by some of the storys images, especially at the end, is further evidence of her deterioration. In the context of the prison camp, images such as, a clown out of Magdas shawl (88), light tapped the helmet and sparkled it into a goblet (8), and, most pointedly, a butterfly touching a silver vine (8) suggest a mind projecting itself onto the world in order to change reality. The story has a surreal quality that imparts a growing sense of madness.Order Custom Cold paper

The shawl itself functions symbolically on many levels. It keeps Magda hidden from the Nazis. Rosa gives Magda all her food, but in turn this causes Rosas milk to dry up, and Magda takes to sucking the edge of the shawl. On the morning of Madgas death, when Rosa realizes that Magda is unhidden and calling for her mommy because shes missing her shawl, she runs back to the barracks, snatches the shawl away from Stella, but it is too late. And at the moment when Rosa sees Magda hurled against an electrified fence, she stuffs the shawl into her mouth to prevent herself from screaming, knowing that the noise would undoubtedly have caused her to be killed as well.

The fence itself, which also is an important symbol in The Shawl, hums continuously, and Rosa often thinks she can hear grainy sad voices in the noise. At the moment of crisis, when she sees that the soldiers have Magda and knows what the outcome will be, the voices become clear and insistent; they tell her to unfurl the shawl, wave it like a banner, call attention to herself, and do something. She does none of those things; rationally Rosa knows that any of those actions would only seal her own fate, so she gags herself with the shawl instead.

At the end of the story her deterioration is complete she has become an infant sucking on and trying to devour Magdas blanket. With no place to expel of her anger, she retreats into herself entirely. Nothing communicates the final stage of her deterioration as well as the last few lines of the story itself

So she took Magdas shawl and filled her own mouth with it, stuffed it in and stuffed it in, until she was swallowing up the wolfs screech and tasting the cinnamon and almond depth of Magdas saliva; and Rosa drank Magdas shawl until it dried (8).

Rosas steady deterioration to this point portrayed subtly and in depth, communicates vividly the effects of powerlessness on the mind and spirit. Every human being needs a sense of control, however minimal, over his or her own life. Robbed of this sense, the mind and spirit wither. Stripped of autonomy, what can the self do but, like Rosa, fall into fantasy and then madness?

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