the shawl

In, The Shawl, by Cynthia Ozick, the readers may ask themselves multiple times throughout the novel, "Is Rosa crazy?"  Rosa, obviously traumatized by the horrific acts of genocide that she witnessed with Magda and Stella, does things throughout the novel that may jeopardize her sanity.  All things considered, however, what Rosa had lived through was enough to make anyone go insane. After witnessing the murder of her small child, Rosa is forever alone, with just Stella to look back on the events which took place during the Holocaust.  However, Rosa has held a grudge with Stella since the incident where she took the shawl, leaving Magda exposed, which would eventually lead to her demise.  Once leaving the concentration camps and arriving in New York, Rosa had established a humble antique shop.  I think that it took Rosa a while to feel that she did not deserve the life she was living because she was in denial that she could have done anything to save Magda.  I personally do not think that there was anything she could have done, but I do think that Rosa does, and that is why she has held such a grudge with Stella.  Rosa uses Stella as a scapegoat for her taking the shawl, because she feels that she is as responsible for Magda's death as Stella is.  After keeping all of this bottled up for years, she eventually snapped and destroyed the antique shop that she once created.  I think that Rosa confines herself to a disheveled Miami hotel to live a lifestyle that she thought was more deserving for her, after "taking the life" of her daughter.  I do not think that Rosa is genuinely crazy, however.  Before the concentration camp, Rosa was an ordinary girl, who has not been exposed to such traumatic events.  After all that she experienced, however, in my opinion, she had not become crazy, yet she had been institutionalized, the same way that someone would be after going to prison for years.  I think that that is why she moved to such a terrible place, to replicate where she thought she deserved to be.  Having said that, I do not think that Rosa is crazy, however, I do not think this is a success story.  I think that the oppression from the Nazi's clearly outweigh any form of success she may have had, whether she would ever live a normal life again or not.