Point of View

"The Shawl" is written in an omniscient third person point of view. It is omniscient because the narrator can see things through the eyes of all the characters. For instance, the narrator tells readers that "Stella wanted to be wrapped in a shawl," and that "Rosa did not feel hunger" -things which could only be known by that character. The point of view is said to be thIrd person because the narrator speaks about the characters from the outside, refer­ring to them as "she" or "he."

Dialogue

"The Shawl" is notable for contaimng almost no dialogue. Rosa says nothing. Stella speaks twice: once when she calls Magda an "Aryan," and again when she says "I was cold" to explain why she took Magda's shawl. Magda screams in the early part of the story, but soon gives that up. She makes no other sound until...