The Tragedy of the Holocaust Essay Example for Free

The Tragedy of the Holocaust Essay Most individuals in society think of literature as just a simple story that the author creates. What most individuals don’t know is that authors have a meaning for writing literature, not just simply for pleasure. Most authors write literature to show a message to the audience whether it’s a personal story or a historical event. The author does this by providing the audience with visual image and emotion that is created throughout the story. In the short story â€Å"The Shawl†, author Cynthia Ozick shows the audience the horrible events that took place during the Holocaust and how much individuals suffered during this time. While reading â€Å"The Shawl†, the reader can feel and imagine throughout the book all the suffering and pain that the Holocaust caused the Jewish people. This short story is great for individuals to know what really took place during this time in life and why it’s so important to make sure that our society never turns to this again. After an Individual reads the short story â€Å"The Shawl†, one will see the tragic events that happened during the holocaust. Author Cynthia Ozick starts of her short story by introducing the three sisters that are the main characters in the story, which are Magdna, Rosa and Bella. Rosa was the oldest sister, Bella was fourteen years old and Madna was just a fifteen-month-old baby. Age difference during the Holocaust did not matter. If you were a baby, child, teenager or adult, German soldiers were determine to kill any Jewish individual during this time. Another thing during the Holocaust was how horrible the living conditions were in the concentration camps. While reading, the audience can imagine the living scene at the concentration camp. As Rosa describes the scene of the concentration camp, the audience can picture seeing dirt, bugs and diseases that surrounded them. Rosa also informs the audience of how beauty can be so close to evil. While Rosa is looking inside the concentration camp she sees an electric fence holding her sisters and herself in the darkness. Rosa states about the electric fence that, â€Å"The farther she was from the fence, the more clearly the voices crowded her. The lamenting voices strummed so convincingly, so passionately, it was impossible to suspect them of being phantoms†(Ozick, pg.2655). On the other side of the fence, Rosa explains seeing the beauty of nature that most individuals today take for granted. While Rosa is rushing trying to give Magda back her shawl, she notices outside the beauty of nature standing outside the iron electric fence. Rosa states, â€Å"On the other side of the steel fence, far away, there were green meadows speckled with dandelions and deep-colored violets; beyond them, even farther, innocent tiger lilies, tall, lifting their orange bonnets (Ozick, pg2655). As Rosa shares this vision with the audience, it’s sad to see how you can see something beautiful but yet it’s far away and individuals like Rosa are stuck behind the iron electric fence that is guarding them from this beauty. Rosa shows a point that in our society, we take the nature of beauty for granted. We go by life way to fast to actually stop and look at the beauty that nature provides. Rosa needed something to have hope and have something to look for and the beauty of nature brought her peace while suffering during the Holocaust. It’s the little things in life that helped the Jewish individuals make it threw the Holocaust. Rosa states that, â€Å"In the barracks they spoke of flowers of rain: excrement, thick turd-braids, and the slow stinking maroon waterfall that slunk down from the upper bunks, the stink mixed with a bitter fatty floating smoke that greased Rosa’s skin† (Ozick, pg2655). It’s frightening to know that in our society wherever we are, true evil can be so close to pure beauty. The Holocaust is a great example of how the beauty of nature is yet so close to the horrifying concentration camps. Another issue that Ozick shows in her short story, â€Å"The Shawl† is jealousy. Since many people were suffering during the Holocaust, many Jewish individuals living in the concentration camps were jealous of one another due to the condition of other Jewish individuals clothes or others having more food. Like any other story, Ozick show’s the good guy and bad guy throughout her short story. Ruth, the older sister, puts her life at risk to make sure that her fifteen-month-old sister Magda is safe while Stella, the other sister, was jealous of her little sister Magda. During the Holocaust, many Jewish individuals had to work all day and walk everywhere that they went; there was hardly any rest. When all three sisters would walk, Magda would be carried and wrapped in the shawl. As Stella saw this, her Jealousy and hatred grew more to her little sister Magda. The narrator states that,â€Å" Sometimes Stella carried Magda, But she was jealous of Magda†(Ozick, pg2653). Another thing that Stella was Jealous of Magda was the shawl that she had. Rosa always had Magda wrapped around her. The shawl was Magda safety net. Everywhere that Magda went, she was always wrapped around in the shawl and every time Rosa would leave the barracks, she would always hide Magda with the shawl. One cold day, Stella went up to Magda and simply took her shawl away from her. When Rosa asked why Stella did this she simply stated, â€Å"She was cold† (Ozick, pg2654). By how jealous and selfish Stella was to her sister, this action of taking away Magda shawl resulted in Magda death. Ozick shows throughout her short story how many Jewish individuals suffered from hunger during the concentration camps. Magda was just a baby and needed all the food she could get in order to survive. There would be times that Rosa would not be able to provide food for Magda, which would result in Rosa taking the corner of the shawl and milking it. Rosa states, â€Å"She sucked and sucked, flooding threads with wetness. The shawl’s good flavor, milk of linen† (Ozick, pg2653). Starvation during the Holocaust also made some Jewish individuals violent and selfish. Stella would not give any food to her sister Magda and would keep everything for herself. Rosa would state that during the Holocaust, â€Å"Stella was ravenous, a growing child herself, but not growing much â€Å"(Ozick, pg2653). Rosa was also frightened of others eating Magda by how tiny she was. Some Jewish individuals during the Holocaust started to turn evil just to get something to eat and a way for them to survive. If it was the result of killing a baby for food, then some Jewish individuals would. Even Magda own sister Stella thought about eating her. That is how horrible hunger had gotten to some Jewish individuals. One day, Ruth states that it sounded that Stella said, â€Å"Lets us devour her†(Ozick, pg2654) to another individual in the concentration camp. Each day when Rosa would leave Magda in the barrack, she would always worry that someone would kill her for food. The description that Ozick gives throughout her short story of how skinny the Jews were in the concentration camps shows the audience how much the Jews suffered from starvation. The author states, â€Å"The weight of Rosa was becoming less and less; Rosa and Stella were slowly turning into air â€Å"(Ozick, pg2654). At the end of the short story â€Å"The Shawl†, Ozick shows the audience how heartless the German solder’s, also known as the â€Å"Nazi Party†, were during the Holocaust. When Stella takes away Magda shawl, Magda steps outside her confront zone. In panic, Magda searches everywhere in the concentration camp to find her shawl. As Rosa waives the shawl to her, she sees a German solider carrying her out of the distance; it’s to late to save her. Rosa states as Magda was being carried of in the distance â€Å" She was no bigger than a moth†(Ozick, pg2655). Even though Magda was just an innocent baby searching for her shawl, the German soldiers did not care, their hearts were cold. While Rosa tells the audience about seeing Magda being taking away farther and farther, the reader can feel how heartbroken Rosa is watching her little baby sister being carried to her death. Rosa states, â€Å"All at once Magda was swimming through the air. The whole of Magna travel though loftiness. She looked like a butterfly touching a silver vine†(Ozick, pg1981). The Holocaust is one of the most tragic events in our history. It’s important that individuals know and understand what happened during this tragic time. Author Cynthia Ozick short story, â€Å"The shawl† is a great way for individuals to read, see and feel the pain and suffering that went on during the Holocaust. The author also does a great job explaining the Jewish life while living in concentration camps and seeing the struggles that Jewish individuals had to face. This time period was one of the darkest times in our society. It is important that we never forgot the Holocaust so that way nothing wicked like this will ever happen again in our society. The Holocaust and all the Jewish people that suffered and lost their lives during this time period will never be forgotten.