This is the fourth sample article that conforms to the writing section requirements of the ECPE (Examination for the Certificate of Proficiency in English) of the University of Michigan. My first post to deal with articles , explains what needs to be present in the piece of writing candidates compose. Examiners are looking for articles that elaborate on ideas and have solid arguments; are well organized; make use of a wide lexical and grammatical range; have an original ring to them (in other words,
Putting the enormity of the Holocaust into words is too difficult a task for any author and yet in this piece, Ozick accomplishes just that. The recipe? Simply three main characters, no convoluted dialogue, events based on detached or semi-detached descriptions either from the mother's point of view or a third person narrator who blends fact with stream of consciousness, and the predominance of short, circumspect, succinct sentences.
If any piece of fiction could teach History and the nature of humankind to adolescents and adults alike, it would be this story.
Read the text here before looking through the notes to help guide you through aspects for class discussion.
Cynthia Ozick - The Shawl
- Ozick
- born 1928, New York
- Jewish
- writes about
- Jewish American life
- politics, history, literary criticism, poetry
- the Holocaust and its aftermath
- explores reconstruction of identity after immigration, trauma and movement from one class to another
- short story
- 3 characters
- Rosa: mother
- Magda: baby, 15 months old
- Stella: 14-year-old girl (niece), cold, ravenous
- setting: marching toward Nazi concentration camp, winter
- hadn’t eaten for 3 days + nights
- shawl = magical (keeps baby quiet)
- shawl stolen by Stella, baby screams, is heard
- Rosa goes to find shawl, comes back to see baby thrown on electric fence
- style
- short
- not elaborate, unembellished
- narrative sentences
- similes + metaphors used throughout (“walking cradle”, “tumors on sticks”…)
- themes
- maternity
- basic needs + instincts
- survival
- race
- violence / viciousness
- symbols
- yellow star
- shawl = tallit
- point of view
- Rosa
- detached, nameless, observant, ‘poetic’ narrator
- creates elements of the grotesque (in the sense of absurdly incongruous)⇨ only way to tackle Holocaust
- Magda’s parentage
- Rosa described as having a dark complexion
- Magda’s face = “it was another kind of face altogether, eyes blue as air, smooth feathers of hair nearly as yellow as the Star sewn in to Rosa’s coat”
- blond hair, blue eyes = looks Aryan
- who is the father?: implication of rape
- humanizing + dehumanizing of characters
- focus falls on
- courage
- power of maternal instinct
- Stella
- blurring of life + death
- cannibalism of human beings: not only Nazis but Stella who wants to eat Magda