Berger teaches at Syracuse University. In the following excerpt, he argues that Ozick's use of symbolism in "The Shawl" contributes to the story's theme of Jewish endurance in the face of horrendous suffering
Cynthia Ozick has written that "stories ought to judge and interpret the world." But universal meaning can only be derived from particularistic experience, "Literature," she has written, "is the recognition of the particular." Responding to the Holocaust requires not only an encounter with, but a struggle to redeem from, evil. Ozick's "redemptive literature" is embedded in biblical, rabbinic, and mystical symbolism. . . .
"The Shawl" (1980), ... is a unique story because it directly confronts the horrors of a death camp experience. The tale, told from the perspective of an omniscient narrator, concerns three Jewesses; Rosa, her infant daughter Magda, and.....
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