I recently read a peers paper on
Cynthia Ozick’s short story “The Shawl”. The writer was arguing that the mother
Rosa was only interested in her own survival and not the wellbeing of her
daughter, Magda. I don’t believe this to be true necessarily simply due to the
dehumanizing conditions in the concentration camps. The writer uses the example of Rosa’s
daughter standing alone in the middle of the square and Rosa’s decision not to
get the child because she will most likely be killed along with the child. Then
after Rosa failed to retrieve the child and the child is taken by guards and
thrown against an electric fence and kills her and Rosa again decides not to
retrieve the child in fear of the consequence of death. The writer believes
that Rosa thinks of herself and the consequences that might happen to her if
she tries to save the child.
I
understand the writers claim that Rosa is only thinking of herself in the
situation because she does not save the child in the end. This is definitely
morally wrong in any situation, but I believe that Rosa is not in any ordinary
situation. She has been forced into a concentration camp against her will with
her fifteen month old child and her nephew. Normally The Nazis would take the
child and kill it upon their arrival to the concentration camp. However, Rosa
was able to sneak the child in using the shawl to hide it. So from the
beginning Rosa is put on edge because she knows she is not supposed to have
this child with her. To me have the responsibility of a life is extremely stressful.
I was a lifeguard for five years and I have had to jump in and get kids who
thought they could swim. Right before you jump in to get them there is always a
hesitation where you need to decide: one, If they actually need help, and two,
if you are making the right decision to jump in and save them or use one of you
tools to retrieve them. This is a drastic downplay of the situation Rosa is
faced with but I am trying to relate it to an experience I have had dealing
with someone’s life. However, in that situation with todays standards upheld by
citizens it is an easy decision for me to jump in and save the child.
Rosa’s
situation does not have the standards that she can follow. In concentration
camps they break down any sense of morality you ever had. They make it so you
cant stand up for what is morally right, and if you did then you were killed.
Now Rosa’s decision is skewed because even if she didn’t have the child she
could be killed at any time. So death is evident at every turn in the camps.
When she sees Magda standing crying in the middle of the square death was
everywhere. There was no chance for survival for the child and she knew it. She
knew it from the beginning; the child never had a chance. So if she tried to
retrieve the child then she would be killed as well. I believe she retrieved
the Shawl for her own self healing because the child was already dead so she
ran to the one thing that kept her alive to comfort her as it did for Magda
while she had to watch her be killed.
I too agree with you in that Rosa was not simply looking out for herself the entire time. Within the text itself, the reader is given examples of how Rosa provides for Magda even when she has nothing to give. When her breasts run out of milk, the shawl is used for nutrients. When Magda needs safety from the cold, Rosa wraps the baby in the shawl to provide warmth and shelter. Now, with the example of the child standing in the middle of the camp crying there is that internal struggle of whether she should go and attempt to save Magda. The idea of morals when it comes to her potential rescue really is not applicable in this situation I agree. I also agree that the argument can’t be made that Rosa did not care for the child’s well being due to her attempts to conceal Magda at all costs within the camp; hiding her within the shawl at night so she would not cry and placing her between Rosa’s legs during roll call. Where I tend to disagree however is the fact that Rosa had a sense of certainty that the child was not going to survive the camp no matter what happened. If this was the case why would she go through the attempts to prevent her from an earlier demise or simply not make the effort in keeping her near this long. The reader might understand that a decision of self sacrifice is difficult in any conditions let alone in a concentration camp but remember that Rosa did in fact go retrieve the shawl in a last ditch effort to rescue Magda before witnessing the child’s death. It was only until that moment did she realize there was no hope for the young girl and that’s why she could not take action and had to just watch the events play out.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting argument that this person has made, and I agree with you in that I don’t see how Rosa could be considered selfish. Rosa “gave almost all of her food to Magda”, which shows enough about how Rosa feels towards her child; why would her feelings change when Magda’s life is directly threatened? (Ozick 5) She also “dreamed of giving Magda away”, and worried about someone dropping and killing her baby. (4)
ReplyDeleteI’m glad you brought attention to the kind of situation she was in, because this was no ordinary or relatable one. We only get glimpses of the conditions she faced, but the little we do get is still enough to convince us that it must have been a nightmare. An aspect of this that stands out is the danger of getting shot. When debating about giving Magda away, Rosa thinks “…if she moved out of the line they might shoot” (4). Later when Rosa sees Magda about to die she “only stood, because if she ran they would shoot, and if she tried to pick up the sticks of Magda’s body they would shoot, [etc.]” (10). Additionally, Rosa did say she “knew Magda was going to die very soon; she should have been dead already, but she had buried away deep inside the magic shawl” (5-6). Seeing that Magda was without the shawl, a part of Rosa could have figured Magda was going to die regardless of any attempts to save her. So, not doing anything wouldn’t make her selfish, but accepting of the horrible reality she was in.
On another note, one thing I did wonder about is why Rosa cared about being shot. Especially given her situation and the fact that she just witnessed her daughter get horrifically murdered, why wouldn’t she want to die?
Ozick, Cynthia. “The Shawl”. New York: Knopf, 1989. Print.