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The shawl !
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Nawinda Malikhao!
Section : 1205!
5761075!
Date : 29 /9/16!

Six million people perished in the flames of the holocaust. The Shawl (1980) is a

breathtaking story written by Cynthia Ozark. It is set in Europe during World War II. Due to the
condition at that time, Genocide Jewish people is Germanys desire. The author uses one
symbol, the shawl, to convey different meaning to different character.!

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The Protagonist,Rosa, is carrying her baby on the march to a concentration camp.When

she arrives she hides the baby in the barracks. She tries to keep her baby alive and be
secure,but her nipples cant produce milk anymore due to the nutritions that she get all day.
Then the baby decide to suck the shawl which uses to cover herself as her supplier.
Consequently,her baby is lack of food which made babys belly gets fatter than normal one.
Moreover,Rosas daughter is trying to eradicate the baby by stealing the shawl which make the
baby follows her.Unfortunately,Rosas baby was killed by the electric fence and Rosa swallow
the shawl which uses to cover babys body.!
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There are three main characters.Rosa is an unfortunate mother who dedicates

everything to her children even though she is hungry. Herself as a meaning of the story implies
that she is an misfortune woman who was born as Jewish ! people and have forced to stay in
the concentration camp with her daughters.She dedicates everything which would help her
daughter alive. The writer stated about this in the story Rosa did not feel hunger; she felt
light,not like someone walking but like someone in faint,in trace,arrested in a fit,someone who is
already a floating angel,alert and seeing fingernails. !

Another protagonist is Magda,a fifteen months baby, who is Rosas daughter. She

represents selfish in humankind because she only thinks about herself. The evidence stated in
the story Magda took Rosas nipple,and Rosa never stopped walking,a walking cradle. It
implies that she doesnt care whether her mother is hurt or not. !
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The last protagonist is Stella,a fourteen-year-old child,who represents envy and jealousy

because she jealous of Magda that always wrapped by the shawl,but she did not. Even though
she is a bigger sister,she still envy of her sister. It is stated in the story Sometimes Stella
carried Magda. But she was jealous of Magda. This means Stella has to carry her sister
sometimes. When she looks at her sister she always want to be wrapped by the shawl like her
sister does. !

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Within the story,there are many conflicts in the story.The first conflict is when Rosa must

decide whether to leave her daughter to the people beside the line or not. Another conflict which
is the key of the story is when Stella steals the shawl from Magda and deceive her to walk out of
the shelter to let the solider see Magda and kill her. The reason why Stella did is because she is
jealous of Magda that she is staying in the shawl while she is staying in the cold. It stated in the
story Stella,cold,cold, the coldness of hell. this implies that she is freezing in the cold and its
really hard for her to handle it. Consequently, from Stellas previous action leads to the
resolution of the story that is Magda is arrested by the solider and detain in the electric fence.
The next conflict is when Rosa knows that her daughter is arrested,she tries to walk to the
fence,however, the soldiers are not allow her to do so. Rosa has to decide whether she has to
walk or stay paralyze and see her daughter dies in front of her.!

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In conclusion, the three protagonists has different meaning to the story itself. Magda

represents greedy of human as an innocent baby who craving for thing he/she wants without
consciousness of other peoples suffer. On the other hand, Rosa infers to sacrifice in giving her
daughter a milk and also protect her form danger while Stella shows jealousy which normally
occur in human being. !
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In my opinion,this story reveals the real of oneself

in the tuff situation. All the main

characters shows the exact behavior as people in this day. I like the words that Cynthia uses to
describe the atmosphere and also the character. !

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