Kevin Carlson
Period 9
Contrast of The Shawl and Maus
1
In past and recent times, the holocaust has been a much-discussed subject.
Whether written or spoken, tales of the holocaust have a heart-stopping affect on us
because of horrifying stories we have heard of the conditions that the Jewish people lived
in. It is hard for humans to imagine exactly what it was like for the Jews during the
holocaust. In two separate pieces of writing, the authors try to portray Jews’ emotions.
These two pieces are valuable, because they give readers insight into the emotions felt
during the holocaust, but instead of describing the hardships of an entire group of people,
they focus on an individual, which allows the reader to better connect to specific
emotions.
The first piece was written by Cynthia Ozick. Her piece is titled The Shawl. It
has three main characters. Their names are Rosa, Stella, and Magda. Rosa and Stella are
sisters, and Magda is Rosa’s fifteen-month-old infant. Stella disapproves of Magda,
because she thinks of her as a “young cannibal,” who is stealing her mother’s health. In
the end of the piece, Stella is indirectly responsible for Magda’s death. The Shawl is
entirely in written form, and does not rely on visual aids at any time.
At some points during the piece, the sentences become choppy and broken, which
evoked the inner turmoil and fear of their experience. For example:
“Magda took Rosa’s nipple, and Rosa never stopped walking, a walking
cradle. There was not enough milk; sometimes Magda sucked air; then
she screamed. Stella was ravenous.”
Kevin Carlson
Period 9
Contrast of The Shawl and Maus
2
In this section, Rosa states only what was absolutely necessary to make her audience
understand what she is trying to say. This strategy is effective because it creates a tone of
despair, as if the person talking is too tired to finish a complete sentence or speak
correctly.
Although The Shawl is entirely in written form, it is still a visual piece. The
author (instead of using plain language to state what is going on, used metaphor and
simile to create a visual image for the reader. In this way the readers think and design
their own ideas about what is happening. For example, in the end of the piece when
Magda is being killed, Ozick, instead of saying that the man threw Magda at the electrical
fence said, “All at once Magda was swimming through the air.” Or instead of saying
that Magda was electrocuted, she said, “She looked like a butterfly touching a silver
vine.”
Maus (the other piece) was identical in subject with The Shawl. It focused on the
holocaust, and Jewish feelings toward it. It begins with one male speaking to another. He
is telling his family’s story about the holocaust and how they were involved. He goes on
to tell in detail how they survived German persecution. This has the effect of
automatically showing trust between the two characters. Ordinarily, people don’t share
intimate details with strangers, so you know that the two characters are familiar with each
other and have some level of trust.
The way Art Speigelman (the author of Maus) decided to portray the holocaust
was very different from many other pieces. Instead of relying completely on words to let
the reader feel the desired emotions, Speigelman drew pictures and visually showed the
Kevin Carlson
Period 9
Contrast of The Shawl and Maus
3
reader the characters’ feelings. A distinct strategy Speigelman used while producing
Maus was personifying mice to resemble the Jews. A possible reason that Speigelman
used this technique was to show the Jews’ helplessness. A mouse to most people is
insignificant and a nuisance; a pest to be gotten rid of, so it is the perfect animal to use to
reflect the Jews’ role in the holocaust. A common phrase which describes the holocaust
exactly is, “A game of cat and mouse.” The intention of this phrase is to highlight an
event where one side has no chance of success. This is exactly what happened during the
holocaust. The Jews had nearly no chance of escape. The symbolism implied by
Speigelman in the drawings is used to emphasize the hopelessness of the Jews.
Maus is unique, but it does have some similarities to The Shawl. For example,
both pieces focus on specific individuals, instead of large groups. This allows the reader
to become more attached to the characters, and feel stronger emotions, since it is more
difficult to connect with a large group. In the last paragraph of The Shawl, when Ozick
writes,
“She only stood, because if she ran they would shoot, and if she tried to
pick up the sticks of Magda’s body they would shoot, and if she let the
wolf’s screech ascending now through the ladder of her skeleton break
out, they would shoot…”
You wouldn’t feel the same emotion that you have while reading this piece as you
would while reading a piece telling the story of how an entire group was oppressed. It is
very easy to connect to Rosa during this part of the story, because of how strongly the
emotions are portrayed through the writing. Another example of how the authors focused
Kevin Carlson
Period 9
Contrast of The Shawl and Maus
4
on individuals to create a better connection between the reader and the characters is seen
in Maus, when Spiegelman writes,
“We’ve been together –a family- for over 70 years. We don’t want to
break apart now! Don’t worry we won’t let them take you.”
The emotions that you feel while reading about this family’s desire to stay together could
not be easily equaled by a piece involving an entire group of people.
A difference between the pieces is the intended audience. The Shawl has a more
specific audience, whereas Maus is more general. The reason for this is that The Shawl is
written in a way that requires a substantial amount of individual thought. Ozick makes
the readers piece together the puzzle instead of laying out the entire picture in front of
them. An example of an inference that the reader makes while reading The Shawl is in
the very first line. It says, “Stella, cold, cold, the coldness of hell.” As soon as you read
this line your mind creates an assumption that there may be negative feelings towards
Stella. You are required to make many more inferences throughout the reading such as
when Ozick writes, “Rosa did not feel hunger; she felt light, not like someone walking
but like someone in a faint…” When you read this sentence you have to assume that
Rosa has been starved, overworked, and is possibly near death. The Shawl is intended
for an educated audience because it requires honed reading skills to fully understand.
The effect of this writing technique is that it may make the reader feel good about
him or herself. It is engaging to piece together the plot, and makes the reader feel smart,
despite the fact that the author intentionally and strategically wrote the piece the way she
did, so that readers could make inferences about what is happening.
Kevin Carlson
Period 9
Contrast of The Shawl and Maus
5
While reading Maus you do not have to make nearly as many inferences as you
do while reading The Shawl. Maus is clearly written, and does not require much thought
to understand the plot, since most of the story is told through the drawing, as it is in most
visual pieces. The audience does not need as advanced reading skills in order to
understand it.
The perspectives that both pieces are told from are different strategies to achieve
the same purpose, that of trying to explain feelings surrounding the Holocaust. For
example, The Shawl is told as if a narrator is telling the audience a story. This
perspective is made clear by the constant high amount of detail put into the writing. Why
would Ozick put so much detail into the writing unless she was trying to tell the story to
an audience as a narrator? An example of the detail intertwined into the piece is shown
in this paragraph,
“The face, very round, a pocket mirror of a face: but it was not Rosa’s
bleak complexion, dark like cholera, it was another kind of face
altogether, eyes as blue as air, smooth feathers of hair nearly as yellow as
the Star sewn into Rosa’s coat.”
It would be unnecessary for Ozick to put this much detail into the story, unless
she was trying to give the reader a better understanding of what everything looks
like and thereby evoking stronger emotions.
Maus is written as if you are eavesdropping on someone else telling a story to
another person. Evidence of this perspective can be seen through some of Speigelman’s
writing:
Kevin Carlson
Period 9
Contrast of The Shawl and Maus
6
“Some Jews thought in this way: if they gave to the Germans a few Jews,
they could save the rest, and at least they could save themselves.”
It is easy to misunderstand who the old mouse is talking to just through one quote,
but through reading the entire text you can see that the old mouse is speaking to
another mouse and not to you. It seems to the reader that the main character isn’t
aware that they are listening. By using this technique the author shows that his
piece is intended to be instructional, not just entertaining.
In comparing and contrasting these two pieces you are given a good
demonstration of how authors can use different strategies and techniques to best suit their
purposes. These two pieces are valuable to contrast because of how close the subjects
are. Both authors have the same purpose in writing, so you can easily see how Ozick,
and Speigelman used different strategies to achieve the same purpose. The main
strategies used that made the stories different were writing from different perspectives,
tailoring their writing to fit different audiences, and using different styles of displaying
images.