1

Ijaz

Muhammad Hamza Ijaz

Shannon R. Blake

ENGLISH 101-010

13 September 2018

The short story ‘The Shawl’ by Cynthia Ozick is about a mother Rosa with her two children

Stella and Magda, who live in poverty. The story tells us about Rosa’s difficulty in feeding her

children, and how she wants to give off Magda to better off people. This story is about the

struggle of a mother unable to feed her children, and how she self-doubts herself in taking care of

her. In my opinion she was right in regards to thinking of giving Magda away, since she has no

food to feed herself or the children. This story is an example of how millions of mothers face the

same situation world over, so we who are better off in regards to resources should help these

people so they do not get separated from their children or see their children die.

Magda has a magic shawl which feeds her mil for three days, as a child she is very happy as

well. This shows that there is light in every dark moment, in the environment where they live in

Magda is the only one who laughs which gives us an important lesson. No matter what

circumstances you are in, you should be grateful for everything you have and find a happy

moment in those dark times.

At the end of the story Magda gets killed off by the people who have held Rosa and her children

captive. Which brings light to another issue, all these wars of the government causes pain to the

common people; it only affects the common people. Like the war on Palestine or Kashmir, it is

the citizens that live in poverty after the war, it is them that see their loved ones die and live in

misery. It does not affect the government, so the message in this article is for the readers to be

brought awareness about the wars and how many lives are affected by these wars.