The Shawl Essay Research Paper The ShawlThe

The Shawl Essay, Research Paper The Shawl The plot of this story does not adhere to the conventional plot line. I feel that the Shawl’s plot came to early. Magda dies to early in the novel. I would have wanted her to be living just a little while longer so that we can build some sort of relationship with her. In my opinion, all we know of this fifteen-month-old baby is what Rosa tells of her daughter. Magda never lives long enough to see life through the eye of the reader. This takes away from a conventional plot line. Even though the book leads us up to the point of her death, the rest of the story is pretty much boring and it takes away from the reader’s attention. In developing the characters throughout the story we begin with Magda. She is the youngest of them all and

she is the first to die as well. She continues to be talked about by Stella and Rosa throughout the story. Magda ends up to be a very important part of Rosa’s life before and after her death. Stella was a selfish and jealous girl who did not like Magda because she thought that she got all the attention from Rosa. Stella then gets angry with Magda and steals the Shawl. I believe she has come a long way in life compared to the way she was as a teenager growing up. She has gone on with her life as she has since been to college and she is a more mature person. She even returned the Shawl back to Magda’s mother. Now Rosa is a mother who has lost a daughter to a brutal death. She also has smashed up her own store due to what she calls an evil world. She is convinced that she has

nothing else to do with her life now that it is destroyed. She goes on to meet Simon Persky and he tries to comfort her and even asked her out on a date. Her panties are stolen and she tries hard to find her panties than she does finding the Shawl. I believe Rosa was in a state of depression because of the loss of her child and her store. She has little understanding of the Polish language and she tries to run away from life’s triumphs instead of facing up to him. I feel that my judgment changes with Stella as the story progresses. She starts off in the beginning of the story as a negative person who feels neglected as a teenager. She doesn’t like Magda for the mere fact that she is a child. She talks negative and I feel that she did not like Rosa for shutting her out of her

life when Magda was born. Then all of a sudden, she makes this attitude adjustment throughout the story by writing to Rosa in a positive seeing how she is doing and giving her advise her life as a person. She also mails back the Shawl to her aunt that really changes the outcome of the story. Stella was not talked about during most of the story after she had stolen the Shawl and Rosa had no idea where it was. I was thinking Stella would have to come back into the picture sooner or later. After the letter she sent to Rosa telling her she was fine and that she needs to move on with her life, it appeared that Stella has learned to accept life as it was given to her. She tried giving advise to her aunt, but to no prevail. The author of this book has enabled me to sympathize with Rosa.

In the beginning of the book they were in the concentration camp where she was trying to protect Magda from death and being seen. She also was trying to keep the family together while in the camp as far as not letting anyone recognize Magda and making sure Stella is okay. Magda dies and Rosa gives up on herself and her life as a woman. I feel sorry for her because I felt as though Rosa was a complete person. Someone that will feel the hardship and pain of Magda’s death and go on with her life after so much advise from Stella and Simon Persky to do so. She never took their advice and now she is by herself. Persky came into her life and tried to give her hope and turn her life around, but she never took advantage of that. She does things only when she has to. Her laundry needed