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Analytical Essay On The Shawl

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In the book The Shawl, a family of three are trying to survive the Holocaust, but have to get have to get through hardship, betrayal, and loss. The author use of the characterization helped setup the tone of the story by putting the struggles the small family have gone through.
The setting of the story affected the characters. “They have been so brutalized that they are hardly recognizable as human.”(May Charles E.) The way how they were brutalized depicts how they are going to be treated throughout the story. This already sets how the feeling for each of the characters, since they are treated differently. “She is so close to death from starvation and exposure that she can think of no one but herself.”(May Charles E.) Stella became cold hearted and didn’t care for anybody needs, but hers only. She was broken with no emotion left show. This lets off something that the setting can make a person not care for anybody but oneself. “A Nazi guard throws Magda into an electrified fence. She dies instantly.”(May Charles E.) Even though Magda was only an infant, the guards could care less about what they are since they are Jews. This show how humans can kill each other without a thought of what they are killing. With the three main characters being Jews, which is one of many that suffered in the Holocaust, they suffered for not being Aryan.
As the story progressed, the story had many tones that can be interpreted. "Rosa even suspects that Stella might devour the infant or that

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