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C2 Sample Essay 39 (School or family shapes one's personality)

In the minds of ESL exam candidates, e ssay writing is one of the most daunting tasks they are required to complete, regardless of the level of the exam, the administering body or the ease with which they themselves use the language. The same applies to students who are asked to write an essay by their teachers at school.  In the previous sample essays posted on the blog, the main point I stress is the need to become acquainted with this form of writing (as opposed to writing a letter, review or report, for instance), to get a feel of what authorial voice is and how to organize and progressively express the arguments you wish to make in a coherent manner.  Unfortunately, the best way to prepare for exam writing or learn how to write good essays for school is to read as many essays from as many sources as possible, then write as

Cynthia Ozick - The Shawl (Overview)

https://argutelegacy.blogspot.com/2018/03/cynthia-ozick-shawl.html
Slightly over 2,000 words is all it takes to portray the bestiality of mankind. This is what Cynthia Ozick manages to achieve in her short story "The Shawl" set in World War II. 

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


  Click the picture for explanations of literary terms
http://argutelegacy.blogspot.gr/2018/04/literary-terminology-list-2.html
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