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| Work Makes You Free, Dachau Concentration Camp. Personal photograph by author. 2014. |
This
story really gave me the chills. It’s horrifying. The imagery that Cynthia
Ozick uses is so powerful. I honestly couldn't sit still as I read this short
story. It was unsettling, and it should be. Coming into this short story I
didn’t know at all what it was about, but it soon became clear with the
language Ozick uses. There were some red flags when I first started, but what
made my mind go to the Holocaust is when Magda is being described, “hair nearly
as yellow as the Star sewn into Rosa’s coat.” (Ozick, 4). As soon as I read that
line my mind automatically switched to the Holocaust.
One of the lines Ozick writes that caught my eye was
describing Magda’s emerging tooth. “One mite of a tooth tip sticking up in the
bottom gum, how shining, an elfin tombstone of white marble gleaming…” (Ozick,
4). There is an interesting parallel in this description between growth and
death. Magda is a baby who is starting to teeth, a sign of her growing. Ozick
then compares this tooth to a small tombstone a representation of death. I
think particular sentence is foreshadowing of Magda’s death at the end of the
story. I also feel that this illustrates there was no age discrimination in
those that died in the Holocaust.
Another passage that caught my attention was when
Rosa claims that the hum of the electric fence sounds like sad voices (Ozick,
9). “The farther she was from the fence, the more clearly the voices crowded at
her.” (Ozwick, 9). These voices that Rosa says she hears I believe are victims
that have already died. Their last pleas and cries for help before they died
that linger on the premise. It’s very eerie because there were so many victims,
so many voices to be heard. It reminds me of when I travelled to Germany where
I was able to visit two concentration camps: Dachau and Sachsenhausen. Walking
around both of these camps was the least to say quite an experience. I remember
seeing these fences. The few buildings that remain standing today. The entrance
that said, “Arbeit macht frei.” Work makes you free.
It’s very different to physically be at a
concentration camp and see what remains from that terrible time instead of just
reading accounts in books. When I was there it the atmosphere felt so heavy. However,
I think Ozick is trying to evoke the same emotions one feels walking around the
camp and reading this particular story. She does this with strong imagery that
can make you feel uncomfortable and shift in your seat. Even though this story
is very dark I did enjoy it because it took me back to the concentration camps,
and I think that speaks volumes on how this story represents the Holocaust.
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| Barbwire Fence, Dachau Concentration Camp. Personal photograph by author. 2014. |
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ReplyDeleteThe Shawl reminded me of my experience abroad, as well. I had the opportunity to visit the concentration camp Mauthausen, in Austria. I agree, walking around the camp is a different feeling from than just reading about it.
ReplyDeleteOzick does a great job telling a story that can be so difficult to write about. She wrote it in a way that wasn’t brutal for me to read. Sarah you said you almost immediatly realized it took place in a concentration camp but I didn’t realize she was talking about the Holocaust until “Rose hit her in the barracks, under the shawl…”(6) . Thank you for bringing the tooth and tombstone quote out along with the symbolism! this gives me a little grasp on the role that Magda plays but I still need to discuss and think about her role more. At first, my group had the question “Does Magda act as a symbol, as a baby?” and I honestly just thought that Magda stood as a symbol for purity. Considering, she was being killed by the Nazi’s, who believed they were the purest race, it was a symbol to show what the Nazi’s were truly doing was not pure, moral or human. It seems more of an irony than symbolism, though.
Great job at close reading!
Morgan Webb
Side note: They recently discovered more victims’ ashes in November 2013 and our Salzburg students, that were there then, had the privilege to carry the urns and partake in the ceremony. http://www.redlands.edu/news/18158.aspx