Haunted ( The Shawl)

Haunted

The physical and emotional obstacles Rosa endures in the first half of the novella The Shawl, by Cynthia Ozick, demonstrates the memories of her past that forever haunt Rosa. Ozick uses imagery of emptiness to depict the numbing of emotion resulting from the overpowering sensation of physical anguish endured during the holocaust and the emotional torment she suffers from witnessing the murder of her child. Her inability to escape these fatal memories reflects through her encounters with Stella and Dr. Tree, in the present.

In the second half of the book, Ozick reveals multiple instances where Rosa feels mentally haunted by Stella. Although time has passed, Rosa continues to blame Stella for murdering Magda.

Sometimes Rosa had cannibal dreams about Stella: she was boiling her tongue, her ears, her right hand, such a fat hand with plump fingers, each nail tended and rosy, and so many rings, not modern rings but old fashioned junkshop rings. Stella liked everything from Rosa’s junkshop, everything used, old lacy with other people’s history. To pacify Stella, Rosa called her Dear One, Lovely, Beautiful; she called her Angel; she called her all the things for the sake of peace, but in reality Stella was cold. She had not heart. Stella, already nearly fifty years old, the Angel of Death. (15)

Rosa believes that Stella is truly as heartless as the Angel of Death and dreams of being vengeful towards her. Rosa stresses Stella’s desire in taking things that hold a sentimental value to her. Which reflects her beliefs that Magda’s death was an intentional ploy for Stella, to pull yet another important thing away from her. Because Rosa already has so much negative connotation towards Stella for “killing” her baby, she can never avoid her past when she is around Stella.

Rosa tugged, and the dress wit the blue stripes slid like a coarse colored worm out of twisted bed sheets. The whole in the armpit was bigger now. Stripes, never again anything on her body with stripes! She swore it, but this fancy and with a low collar, was Stella’s birthday present, Stella bought it. As if innocent, as if ignorant, as if not there. Stella, an ordinary American, indistinguishable! No one could guess what hell she had crawled out of until she opened her mouth and up coiled the smoke of accent. (33)

The gift Stella gives to Rosa becomes a tangible example of Rosa’s incapability of avoiding her past with Stella. In this quote, Rosa suggest, that Stella intentionally tries to remind her of her past by buying her a dress with stripes on it, similar to the uniforms they wore in the concentration camps.

Dr. Tree also reminds her of her past by writing a letter asking if he can do a study on her about her past.

Disease, disease! Humanitarian Context, what did it mean? An excitement over other people’s suffering. They let their mouths water up. Stories about children running blood in America from sores, what muck. Consider also the special word they used: survivor some thing new. As long as they didn’t have to say human being. It used to be refugee, but by now there was not such creatures, no more refugees, only survivors. (37)

She is treated differently for enduring such extensive pain in the past, and recognizes his motivation to study the damage it has caused her. This makes her feel disgusted by their “ excitement” over her pain. She suffers, unable to move forward when being haunted by Dr. Tree’s intentions of making her his lab rat. She despises him, ignorant of the effect it has had on her and criticizes him for describing her as a survivor. If he had truly understood, he would realize that she doesn’t feel like she has truly survived her past. Inside she is not a survivor, and feels empty inside. Like a soulless body, she is unable to connect to the people around her.

The combination of the hardships she faces with her lack of ability to escape her past, conveys she is driven into madness because she is haunted. Rather than labeling her so quickly as mad, Ozick shows us the difference of being driven into madness by exposing us to all of the hardships Rosa has had to endure. Her inability to escape the memories of her physical and emotional pain causes her inability to adapt to the new world. The people around her treat her differently for enduring pain making it hard for her to connect with them, or anyone at all. Stuck in the past, and unable to connect with the present and appears to be mad, when really she is repressed from being haunted by the people in her present life. Ozick writes this novella to show us that madness is merely and easy way for society to label those who have faced extreme complexities in their life. Giving an individual a chance to explain their story, provide us with an opportunity to put ourselves in their shoes.