Cynthia Ozick's Short Story 'The Shawl'

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“The Shawl” Through a Lens
A woman’s shoulders and a baby may be covered up with a shawl the same way a text may be covered up. Literary theory is a means of uncovering a text; allowing a reader to define, classify, analyze, interpret, and evaluate literature using a particular “lens” (Davidson). One of the many different types of literary theories is Historical/Biographical, which is analyzing and evaluating a piece of literature based on its connection to the past (Davidson). Cynthia Ozick’s short story, “The Shawl” can be analyzed and evaluated through a Historical/Biographical lens. By applying Historical/Biographical theory to “The Shawl”, the author’s life and historical context of the time period are reflected in the text.
Cynthia …show more content…

From 1933 to 1945, certain German soldiers in concentration camps wore all black uniforms. The purpose “was on creating desirable silhouettes: tight jackets with high collars, peak caps, jodhpurs and black leather boots contributed to a mystique that symbolized the power and authority of the regime” (Mentges 46). Likewise, in “The Shawl” authorities are dressed in black comparable to a German soldier. Ozick states, “below the helmet a black body like a domino and a pair of black boots …show more content…

Barracks are large, simple buildings in which many people are housed. Barracks in concentration camps housed an unrealistic number of people. Prisoners would sleep ten to a bed, forcing them to lay sideways to fit. Due to these close living quarters, “particular menaces were bed bugs that landed on the prisoner and sucked his or her blood. Lice and rats also plugged prisoners” (Nataupsky). Unsanitary conditions are prevalent in “The Shawl” when Ozick states “even when the lice, head lice and body lice, crazed [Magda] so that she became as wild as one of the big rats that plundered the barracks at daybreak looking for carrion (678). By applying Historical/Biographical Theory to the text, the time period of the Holocaust is reflected in “The Shawl”.
Cynthia Ozick’s short story, “The Shawl” can be analyzed and evaluated through a Historical/Biographical lens. Her life and the historical context of the time period are reflected when applying this theory. Defining, classifying, analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating literature through a particular lens allows a reader to uncover any text and open their eyes to multiple

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