Cynthia Ozick's The shawl : teacher's guide

National Endowment for the Arts

TEACHER'S GUIDE

a. Museum ndLibrary

SERVICES

CYNTHIA OZICK'S

The Shawl

NATIONAL
ENDOWMENT
FOR THE ARTS

*

W

READ

CYNTHIA OZICK'S

The Shawl

TEACHER'S GUIDE

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Sources

Bolick, Katie. "The Many Faces of Cynthia Oziclc" Atlantic Unbound, May 15, 1997. Web address:
www.theatlantic.com/unbound/factfict/ozicLhtm.

Ozick, Cynthia. The Shawl. New York: Random House, 1990.

Mark, Ber. Uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. New York: Schocken Books, 1975.

Niezabitowska, Malgorzata. Remnants: The Last Jews of Poland. New York: Friendly Press, Inc., 1986.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Web site. 2007. www.ushmm.org. Washington, DC:
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Acknowledgements

David Kipen, NEA Director of National Reading Initiatives

Sarah Bainter Cunningham, PhD, NEA Director of Arts Education

Writers: Molly Thomas-Hicks for the National Endowment for the arts, with a preface by Dana Gioia

Series Editor: Molly Thomas- Hicks for the National Endowment for the Arts

Graphic Design: Fletcher Design/Washington D.C.

Image Credits

Cover Portrait: John SherfBus for the Big Read. Page iv: Women in the Warsaw Ghetto, Courtesy of The
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; book cover, courtesy of Vintage Books, a division of Random
House, New York. Page 1: Caricature of Dana Gioia by John SherfBus. Inside back coven © Nancy
Crampton.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Suggested Teaching Schedule 2

Lesson One: Biography 4

Lesson Two: Culture and History 5

Lesson Three: Narrative and Point of View 6

Lesson Four: Characters 7

Lesson Five: Figurative Language 8

Lesson Six: Symbols 9

Lesson Seven: Character Development 10

Lesson Eight: The Plot Unfolds 11

Lesson Nine: Themes of the Book 12

Lesson Ten: What Makes a Great Book? 13

Essay Topics 14

Capstone Projects 15

Handout One: Jewish Life in Pre-World War II Poland 16

Handout Two: The Warsaw Ghetto 17

Handout Three: Jewish Immigration to the United States 18

Teaching Resources 19

NCTE Standards 20

The most astounding thing was
that the most ordinary streetcar,
bumping along on the most
ordinary tracks, and carrying the
most ordinary citizens going from
one section of Warsaw to another,
ran straight into the place of our
misery. Every day, and several times
a day, we had these witnesses."

— from The Shawl

n

Introduction

Welcome to the Big Read, a major initiative from the National Endowment
for the Arts. Designed to revitalize the role of literary reading in American
culture, the Big Read hopes to unite communities through great literature,
as well as inspire students to become life-long readers.

This Big Read Teacher's Guide contains ten lessons to lead you through
Cynthia Ozick's classic novel, The Shawl. Each lesson has four sections: a
focus topic, discussion activities, writing exercises, and homework
assignments. In addition, we have provided capstone projects and suggested
essay topics, as well as handouts with more background information about
the novella, the historical period, and the author. All lessons dovetail with
the state language arts standards required in the fiction genre.

The Big Read teaching materials also include a CD. Packed with interviews,
commentaries, and excerpts from the book, the Big Read CD presents
first-hand accounts of why The Shawl remains so compelling nearly two
decades after its initial publication. Some of America's most celebrated
writers, scholars, and actors have volunteered their time to make these Big
Read CDs exciting additions to the classroom.

Finally, the Big Read Reader's Guide deepens your exploration with
interviews, booklists, timelines, and historical information. We hope this
guide and syllabus allow you to have fun with your students while
introducing them to the work of a great American author.

From the NEA, we wish you an exciting and productive school year.

~£5lufc Mjte\^

Dana Gioia

Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts THE BIG READ • |

chedul

Day One

FOCUS: Biography

Activities: Listen to the Big Read CD. Discuss
Reader's Guide essays. Write an essay on a
career goal or lifetime dream.

Homework: Read the opening story (pp. 3-10)
and Handouts One and Two.

4

Day Two

FOCUS: Culture and History

Activities: Discuss essays from the Readers
and Teacher's Guides. Examine Ozick's
description of the death camp. Write an essay
on whether or not genocide could take place
in today's society.

Homework Read from page 1 3 until the
break on page 39.

3

Day Three

FOCUS: Narrative and Point of View

Activities: Discuss the novel's narrative
perspective. Write a scene from the first
person point-of-view of a character other
than Rosa.

Homework: Read from the break on page 39
until the break on page 53.

Day Four

FOCUS: Characters

Activities: Read Handout Three. Discuss
Stella's letter to Rosa, Simon Persky's role as a
foil to Rosa, and the life Rosa invents for
Magda. Write three paragraphs considering
whether choice is "the only true freedom."

Homework: Finish reading the book.

5

Day Five

FOCUS: Figurative Language

Activities: Discuss figurative language and the
importance of metaphor in Ozick's writing.
Analyze the parable of the lettuce on pages
67-69. Write an essay on why Rosa refuses to
forget the Holocaust.

Homework: Review the book to find
examples of objects that can be considered
symbolic.

2 • THE BIG READ

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6

Day Six

FOCUS: Symbols

Activities: Discuss how Magda's shawl and
Rosa's underwear function as symbols. Write
an essay on what buttons might symbolize to
Rosa.

Homework: List Rosa's strengths and
weaknesses supporting each trait with a
passage from the text.

7

Day Seven

FOCUS: Character Development

Activities: Using the list of character traits
from the previous night's homework, discuss
whether or not Rosa is a sympathetic, heroic
protagonist. Analyze Persky's effectiveness as a
comic character. Write an essay on the
character most highly assimilated to American
culture.

Homework: Identify three major turning
points in the book.

8

Day Eight

FOCUS: The Plot Unfolds

Activities: Discuss the book's turning points
and what we learn about Rosa during those
moments. Outline a sequel to the book.

Homework: Identify three major themes in
the book.

9

Day Nine

FOCUS: Themes of the Book

Activities: Discuss themes of Memory/History,
Dignity, and Life.

Homework: Begin working on essays.

10

Day Ten

FOCUS: What Makes a Great Book?

Activities: Explore the qualities of a great
work of fiction.

Homework: Work on essays.

National Endowment for the Arts

THE BIG READ • 3

Lesson One

FOCUS:

Biography

The authors life can inform and expand the readers understanding of a
work of fiction. One practice of examining a literary work, biographical
criticism, looks through the lens of an authors experience. In this lesson,
explore the authors life to more fully understand The Shawl.

Born in 1 928 to a family of Russian immigrants, Cynthia Ozick spent her
childhood in the Pelham Bay area of the Bronx. Her parents owned a
neighborhood pharmacy. Ozick spent afternoons and evenings reading and
re-reading such favorites as classic fairy tales and Louisa May Alcott s Little
Women. Acceptance to Hunter College High School in New York, an
academically competitive school for young women, gave her the confidence
she needed to pursue her goal of becoming a writer.

Discussion Activities

Listen to the Big Read CD. Students should take notes as they listen. Copy and
distribute the Reader's Guide essays "Cynthia Ozick" and "An Interview with
Cynthia Ozick." Divide the class into two groups. Assign one essay to each group.
After reading and discussing the essays, each group will present what they learned.
Ask students to add a creative twist to make their presentation memorable.

Writing Exercise

Cynthia Ozick knew from the time she was a very small child that she would be a
writer. Have students write a three-paragraph essay on the career they plan to
pursue or another goal that will define their lives. When did they first become
aware of their desire? Did they find encouragement from family, friends, or
teachers? Was there pressure for or against their choice? If so, why? Ask students
to consider what provides them with the confidence and discipline needed to
achieve their dreams.

[J] Homework

Read the opening short story,'The Shawl" (pp. 3-10) and Handouts One and Two.
Ask students to make a list of ten adjectives or phrases Ozick uses to describe
Rosa's, Magda's, or Stella's experience in the death camp.

4 * THE BIG READ

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FOCUS:

Culture and
History

Cultural and historical contexts give birth to the dilemmas and themes at
the heart of a work of fiction. Studying these contexts and appreciating the
intricate details of the time and place can assist us in comprehending the
motivations of the characters. In this lesson, use cultural and historical
contexts to begin to explore the book.

Though the exact location is never mentioned, the book's opening story
takes place in a Nazi death camp during World War II. In the novella, we
learn that Rosa comes from a well-educated and highly assimilated family of
Polish Jews. Home to Europe's largest Jewish population prior to World
War II, Poland served as a center of learning and culture for the Jewish
community worldwide. After the Nazi invasion in 1939, all Jews were
forced to live in restricted areas, known as ghettoes. Rosa recounts some of
her experiences in the Warsaw ghetto. Despite a brave rebellion, most of the
Jews detained in the Warsaw ghetto were eventually sent to Treblinka — an
extermination camp fifty miles outside the city.

Discussion Activities

Copy and distribute Teachers Guide Handout One/'Jewish Life in Pre- World War
II Poland," Handout Two, "The Warsaw Ghetto," and the Reader's Guide essay/The
Holocaust." Divide your class into three groups. Assign each group an essay.
Starting with "Jewish Life," ask groups to present what they learned to the class.

Using the adjectives collected for homework, what emotions are captured through
Ozick's vivid language? Why is Magda like a "tiger"? Near the end of the story, we
read about "green meadows" and "innocent tiger lilies." Does this glimpse to the
green meadows imply hope or hopelessness for Rosa, Stella and Magda? Why
would Ozick provide us with a glimpse of beauty before a horrific event takes
place?

Writing Exercise

Ask your students to write a two-page essay considering whether or not a
genocide such as the Holocaust can take place today. What, if any, responsibility
would an average person bear? How can we, as a humane society, prevent or stop
racial prejudice and genocide?

EJ Homework

Read from page 1 3 until the break on page 39. Ask students to pay close attention
to the way Rosa perceives her surroundings. What does she mean when she says,
"Once I thought the worst was the worst after that nothing could be the worst
But now I see, even after the worst there's still more"?

National Endowment for the Arts

THE BIG READ • 5

Lesson " hree

FOCUS:

Narrative
and Point of
View

The narrator tells the story with a specific perspective informed by his or
her beliefs and experiences. The narrator can be a major or minor character.
The narrator weaves her or his point of view, including ignorance and bias,
into the telling of the tale. A first-person narrator participates in the events
of the novel using "I." A distanced narrator (often not a character) does not
participate in the events of the story and uses third person (he, she, they) to
narrate the story. The distanced narrator can be omniscient, able to read the
minds of all characters within the book. Ultimately, the type of narrator
determines the point of view from which the story is told.

The Shawl employs a third-person narrative voice that does not participate
in the story or novellas action, but has access to Rosa's private thoughts and
feelings. Further, the narrator uses descriptive language and imagery that
evoke Rosa's thoughts and moods. For instance, at the beginning of the
novella, the narrator describes a "shrieking pulley," "squads of dying flies,"
and streets like a "furnace." Ozick uses these images in the narration to
underscore how deeply memories of the Holocaust affect Rosa, even more
than thirty years after the war's end.

Discussion Activities

Share the images mentioned above with your students. Ask them to find other
instances where the narrator describes people, places, or things as if looking
through Rosa's eyes with her unique personal history. Ask your students why Rosa
feels that "even after the worst, there's still more." How does her perception of her
surroundings feed into her despair?

Sometimes the narration is so closely aligned with Rosa's perspective it seems as if
the book could have been written first-person. Why might Ozick have chosen to
use such a close third-person point of view rather than writing in first-person from
Rosa's viewpoint? Does third person offer any objectivity that might be lost if Rosa
told her own story? Why or why not?

Writing Exercise

Ask your students to choose one character other than Rosa that has appeared so
far. Have students rewrite a short scene of their choice from the first-person point
of view of that character. Have volunteers read their scenes aloud to the class.
What equips their character to tell the story? What does this character's point of
view add to the story? What is lost?

F] Homework

Read from the break on page 39 to the break on page 53. Ask your students to
pay close attention to the letter Stella sends Rosa. What do we learn about Stella?

6 • THE BIG READ

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FOCUS:

Characters

The main character in a work of literature is called the "protagonist." The
protagonist often overcomes a weakness or ignorance to achieve a new
understanding by the work's end. A protagonist who acts with great courage
may be called a "hero." Readers often debate the virtues and motivations of
the protagonists in the attempt to understand whether they are heroic. The
protagonists journey is made more dramatic by challenges presented by
characters with different beliefs. A "foil" provokes the protagonist so as to
highlight more clearly certain features of the main character. The most
important foil, the "antagonist," is any character or force in a literary work
that opposes the efforts of the protagonist, barring or complicating his or
her success. The antagonist doesn't necessarily have to be a person. It could
be nature, a social force, or an internal drive in the protagonist.

H

Discussion Activities

Rosa Lublin is the protagonist of The Shawl. Who or what is Rosa's most
formidable antagonist? Discuss Stella's letter to Rosa (pp. 31-33). Is it reasonable
for Stella to expect Rosa to move on with her life? Do your students find her
letter cruel or helpful? Ask them to support their answers with passages from the
text.

Simon Persky serves as a foil for Rosa. Copy and distribute Handout Three,
"Jewish Immigration to the United States." Rosa repeatedly tells Persky, "My
Warsaw isn't your Warsaw" What does she mean by this? Persky calls Rosa a
refugee and she thinks of him as an immigrant. How do the circumstances under
which Rosa and Persky came to the United States color their views of life and
each other?

Although Magda dies in the first story, Rosa attempts to keep her alive through
memory. Read Rosa's letter to Magda aloud (pp. 39-44). Discuss the life Rosa
invents for Magda. What traits does Rosa give her daughter? Why might those
traits be particularly important to Rosa? Do your students ever feel as if their
own parents project unfulfilled desires onto them? How might Rosa be doing the
same?

Writing Exercise

Rosa writes to Magda, "You have a legacy of choice, and they say choice is the only
true freedom" (p. 43). What does Rosa mean when she tells Magda that choice is
freedom? Does she live her life with this in mind? Ask your students to write
three paragraphs considering whether choice is "the only true freedom."

Homework

Have students finish reading the book. Ask them to pay very close attention to
the passage about the ghetto that begins with the last paragraph on page 67 and
runs to the break on page 69.

National Endowment for the Arts

THE BIG READ • 7

FOCUS:

Figurative
Language

An author uses images, similes, metaphors and symbols to help the reader
visualize and experience events and emotions contained within a story.

Cynthia Ozick believes figurative language is critical to understanding
literature and uses it masterfully throughout The Shawl. In a 1998 Atlantic
Monthly interview she said, "Just as you can't grasp anything without an
opposable thumb, you can't write anything without the aid of metaphor.
Metaphor is the mind's opposable thumb." In her essay "Metaphor and
Memory" she writes, "Without the metaphor of memory and history, we
cannot imagine the life of the Other. We cannot imagine what it is to be
someone else. Metaphor is the reciprocal agent, the universalizing force: it
makes possible the power to envision the stranger's heart."

Discussion Activities

Parables are metaphorical stories that use realistic characters and circumstances
to make a point They often carry a strong message that has meaning beyond its
literal reading. Stella calls Rosa a "parable maker." In her last letter to Magda, Rosa
recounts a story about a woman with a head of lettuce traveling through Warsaw
on the tramcar. Read aloud from the last paragraph on page 67 to the break on
page 69.

Rosa writes, "The most astounding thing was that the most ordinary streetcar,
bumping along on the most ordinary trolley tracks, and carrying the most
ordinary citizens going from one section of Warsaw to another, ran straight into
the place of our misery. Every day, and several times a day, we had these
witnesses" (p. 68). Ask your students why Poles traveling through the ghetto on
the tramcar might have been unwilling to help the Jews. Do they believe people
today would react differently? Why or why not?

What does Rosa mean when she writes, "And in this place now I am like the
woman who held the lettuce in the tramcar. I said all this in my store, talking to
the deaf"(p. 69)? Why would a head of lettuce be so important to Rosa? What
lessons does the parable of the woman with the lettuce teach? Why is it
important to Rosa that her story is heard?

Writing Exercise

Write Ozicks quotes on metaphor on the blackboard. Ask your students to write
three paragraphs considering why Rosa refuses forget what happened during the
Holocaust. Why does she feel she must tell others what happened? How does
bearing witness to these events help Rosa cope with horrible memories of life in
the Warsaw ghetto and the extermination camp?

EJ Homework

8 • THE BIG READ

Have students page through the book to find examples of objects that could be
considered symbolic. Ask them to write two paragraphs about one of the book's
symbols. How is the symbolic meaning different from the literal value of the
object? How does this inform our understanding of the story or characters?

National Endowment for the Arts

FOCUS:

Symbols

Symbols are interpretive keys to the text. The craft of storytelling depends
on symbols that present ideas and point toward new meanings. Most
frequently, a specific object will be used to reference (or symbolize) a more
abstract concept. The repeated appearance of an object suggests a non-
literal or figurative meaning attached to the object — above and beyond face
value. Symbols are often found in the books title, within a profound action,
or captured by the name or personality of a character. The life of a book is
perpetuated by generations of readers interpreting and re-interpreting the
main symbols of the story.

Discussion Activities

In the book's opening story, Rosa swaddles her infant daughter Magda in a shawl
to protect her and keep her warm. Throughout the rest of the book, the shawl
represents different things to different characters. Ask your students to consider
what the shawl meant to Magda, an infant barely clinging to life in an
extermination camp. What did the shawl represent to fourteen-year-old Stella? To
Rosa, a young mother? Why do your students think Rosa kept the shawl for more
than thirty years? Over the years, did the shawl begin to represent something
different to Rosa? If so, what? As an adult, how does Stella feel about the shawl?
Are her feelings justifiable? Why or why not?

After her trip to the laundromat, Rosa notices a pair of her underwear is missing.
Why is Rosa so upset by the loss? Ozick writes, "Because of the missing
underwear, she had no dignity before him. She considered Persky's life: how trivial
it must always have been: buttons, himself no more significant than a button. It was
plain he took her to be another button like himself, battered and now out of
fashion[. . .]" (p. 55). Ask your students to consider the reasons why losing such an
intimate item might be especially upsetting to Rosa. Why was it particularly
humiliating for Rosa to think Persky took them?

Writing Exercise

On the day Rosa and Persky meet, she is ashamed when Persky, a retired button
manufacturer, notices her dress is missing a button. Later, when he visits her
apartment and offers to take her to the library, Rosa is touched. "A thread of
gratitude pulled in her throat He almost understood what she was: no ordinary
button" (p. 57). Ask your students to read that scene again and then write a two-
page essay on what buttons symbolize to Rosa. How are the actual image and its
symbolic value appropriate considering Rosas background and history? Have your
students support their ideas with passages from the text

EJ Homework

Ask your students to make a list of Rosa strengths and weaknesses. They should
support each trait with a passage from the text

National Endowment tor the Arts

THE BIG READ • 9

Lesson Seven

FOCUS:

Character
Development

Stories, novellas, and novels trace the development of characters that
encounter a series of challenges. Most characters contain a complex balance
of virtues and vices. Internal and external forces require characters to
question themselves, overcome fears, or reconsider dreams. The protagonist
undergoes profound change. A close study of character development maps
the evolution of motivation, personality, and belief in each character. Still,
the tension between a characters strengths and weaknesses keeps the reader
guessing about what might happen next, affecting the drama and the plot.

In The Shawl, Rosa struggles to survive in a world that seems to have
forgotten the atrocities of the Holocaust. Rosa's life is defined by her need
to bear witness to the cruelty she experienced, while Stella attempts to move
past the horrors of the extermination camp. Rosa tells Persky, "Stella is self-
indulgent. She wants to wipe out memory." Persky becomes the one person
in Rosa's life who truly listens, and their continued friendship offers a bit of
hope at the book's end.

Discussion Activities

Using their homework from the night before, ask your students to list some of
Rosa's strengths and weaknesses on the blackboard. Talk about each of these
traits while referring to the text. Have the students listed more good qualities or
bad? Ask them if they find Rosa to be a sympathetic character. Do they consider
her a heroic protagonist? Why or why not? Who or what serves as an antagonist
to Rosa? What do we learn about her character from these forces of conflict?

Persky provides comic relief during what is otherwise a very serious work of
fiction. What do we learn about Persky 's and Rosa's personalities during their
banter? How does Persky use humor to gain Rosa's trust? Both Persky and Stella
suggest that Rosa should forget about her life in Poland. Why might Rosa listen to
Persky when she cannot bear to have Stella tell her to move on with life?

Writing Exercise

Many Polish citizens were highly assimilated Jews. Until Hitler's Holocaust, they did
not necessarily consider their religion to be their primary identification. Ask your
students to write a two-page essay on the character that best assimilates to
American culture. Does the need to assimilate to American culture deepen or
cure the wounds left from the war? Have students support their thesis with
passages from the text

E2 Homework

Have students page through the book and identify three major turning points.

I 0 * THE BIG READ National Endowment for the Arts

FOCUS:

The Plot
Unfolds

The author artfully builds a plot structure to create expectations, increase
suspense, and inform character development. The timing of events from
beginning to middle to end can make a book predictable or riveting. A
plot, propelled by a crisis, will reach a climax, and close with a resolution
(sometimes called denouement). Foreshadowing and flashbacks allow the
author to defy time while telling the story. A successful author will keep a
reader entranced by clever pacing built within the tale, sometimes
confounding a simple plot by telling stories within stories.

The events that took place in the Warsaw ghetto and the extermination
camp shape the way Rosa views herself and others. Convinced that Persky
has violated her trust by taking her underpants, Rosa calls him a thief. The
next morning she finds them inside a towel. Immediately afterward, she
goes downstairs to talk to the receptionist about having her phone
reconnected. The long-awaited package from Stella is there but, rather than
excitement, Rosa initially feels indifferent when she sees the colorless cloth
laying in the box. During a phone call to Stella, Magda comes alive in
Rosas imagination just long enough for Rosa to write her the story of the
woman with the lettuce. Magda slips away when the phone rings. The
receptionist announces that Persky is downstairs waiting for Rosa.

Discussion Activities

Ask your students to identify several major turning points in the book. Discuss
these turning points with the class. Ask your class to consider what we learn
about Rosa at each of these moments. Do they feel Rosa changes during the
course of the book? If so, in what ways does she change? If not, what prevents a
transformation? What, if any, signs of hope occur in the book's last passages?

Map a timeline that depicts the dramatic build-up in the book. Do your students
feel that Magda's death in the first story causes the rest of the book to be
anticlimactic? Why or why not?

Writing Exercise

Outline a sequel to The Shawl. Write a few paragraphs of the sequel's opening
scene. What happens after Persky comes up to Rosa's room? Do they continue
their friendship? Does Rosa ever reconcile with Stella?

EJ Homework

Ask your students to identify three major themes in the book.

National Endowment for the Arts

THE BIG READ • | |

Lesson Nine

FOCUS:

Themes of
the Book

Profound questions raised by the story allow the character (and the reader)
to explore the meaning of human life and extract themes. Themes
investigate topics explored for centuries by philosophers, politicians,
scientists, historians, and theologians. Classic themes include intellectual
freedom versus censorship, personal moral code in relation to political
justice, and spiritual faith versus rational commitments. A work of fiction
can shed light on these age-old debates by creating new situations to
challenge and explore human nature.

Discussion Activities and Writing Exercise

Use the following questions to stimulate discussion or provide writing exercises in
order to interpret the book in specific ways. Using historical references to
support ideas, explore the statements The Shawl makes about the following
themes and the themes your students identify during their reading of the book

Memory/History

Rosa writes to Magda,"When I had my store, I used to 'meet the public,' and I
wanted to tell everybody — not only our story, but other stories as well. Nobody
knew anything. This amazed me, that nobody remembered what happened only a
little while ago" (p. 66).

Why does Rosa feel compelled to tell her story to people who do not want to
hear it? What does she hope to accomplish? Do people have a responsibility to
study history? Why or why not?

Dignity

Rosa often feels ashamed. Discuss instances that cause Rosa embarrassment Why
do these events cause such profound pain? Refer again to the passage on pages
53-6 1. What does Rosa mean when she says she is "no ordinary button"? How
might it have been important NOT to be ordinary while trying to survive in a
death camp? Does the desire to be something special influence Rosa in positive
ways or negative ones? Support your answers with references to the text

Life

Rosa tells Persky that people have three lives — "the life before, the life during, and
the life after." Discuss Rosa's three lives. Which is the most important to her?
Does Rosa have the power to change "the life after?" Why or why not?

EJ Homework

Ask students to begin their essays using the Essay Topics in this guide. Outlines are
due the next class period.

| 2 * THE BIG READ

National Endowment for the Arts

FOCUS:

What Makes
a Great
Book?

Works of fiction can illustrate the connections between individuals and
questions of humanity. Great stories articulate and explore the mysteries of
our daily lives, while painting those conflicts in the larger picture of human
struggle. Readers forge bonds with the story as the writer's voice, style, and
sense of poetry inform the plot, characters, and themes. By creating
opportunities for learning, imagining, and reflecting, a great book is a work
of art that affects many generations of readers, changing lives, challenging
assumptions, and breaking new ground.

Discussion Activities

Ask students to make a list of the characteristics of a great book. Write these on
the board. What elevates a work of fiction to greatness? Then ask them to discuss,
within groups, other books they know that include some of these characteristics.
Do any of these books remind them of The Shawl? Is this a great book?

A great writer can be the voice of a generation. What kind of voice does Cynthia
Ozick create in The Shawl? Does this story speak about more than one woman's
personal trauma? What can we learn about the importance of memory and
history from reading this book? Human dignity? The will to live?

Divide students into groups and have each group determine the single most
important theme of the book. Have a spokesperson from each group explain the
group's decision, with references from the text. Write these themes on the board.
Do all the groups agree?

Writing Exercise

Ask students to write a letter to a friend, perhaps one who does not like to read,
explaining why The Shawl is a good book. The student should make an argument
that explains why this book has meaning for all people, even those who have no
interest in other times or other places.

E3 Homework

Students will finish their essays.

National Endowment for the Arts

THE BIG READ • | 3

The discussion activities and writing exercises in this guide provide you with possible essay topics,
as do the Discussion Questions in the Readers Guide. Advanced students can come up with their
own essay topics, as long as they are specific and compelling. Other ideas for essays are provided
here.

For essays, students should organize their ideas around a thesis about the book. This statement or
thesis should be focused, with clear reasons supporting its conclusion. The thesis and supporting
reasons should be backed by references to the text.

Several times over the course of the novella, 4.

we find statements very much like this one:
"Without a life, a person lives where they can.
If all they got is thoughts, that's where they live"
(pp. 27-28). After all Rosa has lost, is she
justified in separating herself from life? Why or
why not? Do Stella or Persky offer better
examples of how to live after experiencing
disappointment or trauma?

Should Stella feel responsible for Magda's
death? What sort of person is Stella as an
adult? Why does Rosa feel she is cold and self-
indulgent? Are Rosa's attitudes toward Stella
justified? Why or why not? How would you 5.

characterize Stella's feelings for Rosa?

Stella believes Magda to be the product of
Rosa's rape by a Nazi soldier but Rosa insists
she conceived the baby with Andrzej, her pre-
war fiance. Who do you believe? If Stella is
right, why would Rosa make up such and
elaborate history for Magda? Why would she
have chosen to give her daughter both a Jewish
and a Christian heritage? Do you find it
surprising that Rosa imagines an American life
for Magda? Why or why not?

Why is Rosa so offended by Dr. Tree's letter?
Why does she resist the terms "survivor" and
"refugee" but embrace simply being called a
human being? Does this attitude seem at odds
with her desire not to be "an ordinary button"?
Does being called a "human being" bear
witness to the events Rosa experienced in the
ghetto and death camp? Why or why not?
Why has Ozick chosen to include the scholar,
Dr. Tree? Why has she chosen a scholar in
"clinical social pathology" and not a Holocaust
historian? Is Ozick making a statement about
scholarly interest in human tragedy?

What does Rosa mean when she tells Persky,
"My Warsaw is not your Warsaw?" What does
Rosa imagine his family was like? What evidence
is there that she is correct? How do Persky's
views about life in America differ from Rosa's?
Why do they differ?

I 4 * THE BIG READ

National Endowment for the Arts

Teachers may consider the ways in which these activities may be linked to other Big Read
community events. Most of these projects could be shared at a local library, a student assembly, or
a bookstore.

1 . Have the students create a photo gallery of 4.
Warsaw before, during, and after World War II.

If possible, try to include scenes and persons
reflective of the The Shawl: a home of a well-to-
do family, a synagogue, Nazi soldiers, the
Warsaw ghetto, and so on. Display the gallery
in the classroom or school library.

2. Show your class the DVD of Schindler's List
Following the screening, lead a class discussion
to explore the accuracy of the portrayals of the
movie and The Shawl, in both detail and spirit. 5.

3. Ask your class to collect various buttons. After
your class has collected as many buttons as
they can, create a display. More than six million
Jews were murdered during the Holocaust.
Calculate how many lives each button collected
would have to represent. Display your
collection along with photos and stories of
those who perished in the extermination
camps. The United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum (www.ushmm.org) is a good resource
for the photos and stories.

Ozick turned The Shawl into a play by the same
name. Work with a theater teaching-artist to
have student adapt scenes from the novel.
Student-writers might learn to direct their
adaptation with the assistance of a teaching-
artist. Other students might create stage sets
for each scene. Perform these scenes at a
school assembly or Big Read event. Or, have
students from the theater club perform
adaptations.

Have the students draw a series of portraits of
Rosa Lublin at various stages of her life: the
happy child; the enthusiastic student; the
protective mother; the young woman whose
world has been destroyed; the older woman
troubled by society's ability to forget so easily.
Display these Stages of a Life in the classroom.

National Endowment for the Arts

THE BIG READ • | 5

HANDOUT ONE

Jewish Life in Pre- World War II Poland

For centuries Jews from all over the world sought
refuge in Poland, located in eastern Europe
between Germany and the former Soviet Union.
The first large migration of Jews began during the
Crusades, in the late 1 1 th and early 1 2th centuries.
Encouraged by the religious tolerance they found,
Jewish families settled, established communities,
and eventually became the cornerstone of the
Polish economy.

The 12th through 20th centuries were punctuated
by periods of anti-Semitism fueled by xenophobia
and envy of the Jews' perceived control of the
economy. Still, compared with much of Europe,
Poland remained relatively tolerant. According to
the 1 93 1 census, more than three million Jews
lived in Poland — Europe's largest Jewish
population. Newspapers appeared in Hebrew,
Yiddish, and Polish. Jewish schools — both religious
and secular — promoted scholarship and intellectual
debate that influenced the Jewish community
worldwide.

Jewish life and culture especially thrived in Warsaw,
the country's capital city. A beautiful metropolis
bisected by the Vistula River, Warsaw housed the
world's second largest Jewish community after
New York City. Before World War II began, Jews
comprised nearly thirty percent of the city's
population. The largest and most beautiful
synagogue in Warsaw was known as the "Great
Synagogue" in Tlomackie Square. It held more
than two thousand people and had meeting rooms,
a library, an archive, and a heder (school).

Though some Jews maintained their own religious
and cultural traditions, other families were highly
assimilated. They identified themselves first as
Polish citizens and only secondly by religion. They
conducted their lives just as any other Polish citizen
and a person passing on the street would not have
known they were Jewish.

Poland's central location and large Jewish
population made it a target of the Nazi regime.
German troops invaded Poland in September
1939. The Nazis immediately placed heavy
restrictions on Jews. Jewish businesses were
required to display the Star of David as a symbol of
Jewish identity. Jews could not have bank accounts,
hold large amounts of money, or work in the
textile or leather trades. By November 1939, the
Nazis required all Jews to wear a blue armband
with the Star of David. The Nazi regime closed
Jewish schools, confiscated Jewish property, and
forced Jewish citizens into labor camps. Jews could
not own radios, attend movies, enter a post office,
or mail letters overseas. In October 1 940, the Nazis
degreed that all Jews in Warsaw must move to a
sealed-off area that came to be known as the
"Warsaw Ghetto."

| 6 " THE BIG READ

National Endowment for the Arts

HANDOUT TWO

The Warsaw Ghetto

During World War II, the Germans established
ghettos throughout Europe that separated Jews
from the rest of the population and isolated Jewish
communities from each other. This allowed Nazis
to maintain control and arrange deportations to
forced labor, concentration, and extermination
camps. In October 1940, just over a year after
Germany invaded Poland, the Nazi regime required
all Warsaw's Jewish citizens and those from nearby
towns to move to a designated area. This area,
sealed off from the rest of the city, eventually held
over 400,000 people — more than a third of the
local population — but comprised less than five
percent of Warsaw's land area.

The Nazis established a Judenrat (Jewish Council)
to uphold order inside the ghetto. The Judenrat did
not know the Reich's ultimate plan demanded the
complete extermination of all European Jews. They
cooperated with the Nazis in vain hope of saving
lives. Jewish council members who refused to
cooperate were often killed or transported to one of
the camps.

Food allotments rationed by the German
authorities were not enough to sustain life. As a
result, a black market developed. Countless Jews
sold their few remaining possessions in order to
purchase food or medicine. Between 1940 and
1942 nearly 100,000 people died of illness and
starvation while living inside the Warsaw Ghetto.

At the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, the
Nazis decided on what they called "The Final
Solution," the systematic murder of all Jews living
within the Reich. They established extermination

camps with specialized gas chambers capable of
killing large numbers of people. From July until
October 1942, the Nazis sent more than 300,000
Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka, an
extermination camp in a sparsely populated area
fifty miles outside of Warsaw. Information trickled
back to the ghetto about what was taking place
there.

Several Jewish resistance groups decided to fight
back with smuggled guns and homemade weapons.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the largest and
most important opposition effort organized by the
Jewish resistance during World War II. On April
19, 1943, the ghetto fighters opened fire on
German SS and police when they attempted to
deport the remaining Warsaw Jews.

Despite being vastly outnumbered and short of
weapons, the ghetto fighters inflicted heavy
casualties in the first days of the battle. Germans
began burning the ghetto building by building to
flush out the fighters. They regained control of the
ghetto and, on May 16, 1943, German General
Jurgen Stroop ordered the destruction of the Great
Synagogue on Tlomackie Street as a symbol of
German victory. The 56,000 Jews that remained in
Warsaw were either shot or transported to
extermination camps.

National Endowment for the Arts

THE BIG READ • | 7

HANDOUT THREE

Jewish Immigration to the United States

Anti-Semitism, overpopulation, and racial
discrimination prompted many Jews to leave
Eastern Europe in the late 1 800s and early 1 900s.
Between 1880 and 1924, when the United States
adopted immigration restrictions, more than two
millions Jews came to America. Many of these
immigrants were unskilled laborers, struggling to
learn English. Enticed by freedom and
opportunity, they primarily settled in large cities
such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and
Chicago and found work in factories,
manufacturing, and construction. This wave of
immigrants embraced the American experience
and made the country their new home. By the
turn of the century, most major cities in the
United States had thriving Jewish communities.

As Jews assimilated to the United States they made
significant contributions to the country's
intellectual and cultural life. In The Shawl, Simon
Persky brags that film legend Lauren Bacall (born
Betty Joan Perske to Jewish immigrant parents) is
his cousin. Broadway composer Irving Berlin,
magician Harry Houdini, and science fiction writer
Isaac Asimov all came to America as children, part
of the vast wave of European Jewish immigrants.
Like Simon Persky, they found an America full of
opportunity and embraced the American dream.

However, after World War I attitudes toward
immigration began to change. Congress passed a
series of laws to limit the flow of immigrants.
During the Holocaust, obtaining a visa became an
issue of life and death. The United States, like
many countries, initially refused to allow Jewish
refugees and stood silent while millions of Jews
died at the hands of the Nazi regime.

Just before the outbreak of World War II on May
13, 1939, the St. Louis sailed from Hamburg to
Havana, Cuba. Almost all the passengers were Jews
fleeing Nazi anti-Seminitism. Most applied for
U.S. visas and planned to stay in Cuba only until
they could enter the United States. Ultimately,
Cuba did not allow the ship to dock. The
passengers on board were stranded. The United
States government was aware of the situation and
had been asked to allow the refugees safe haven.
The government refused, and most of the
passengers were sent back to Europe just as World
War II began.

Nearly five years later in January 1 944 the
Roosevelt Administration, faced with undeniable
evidence of what was taking place in the Nazi
extermination camps, formed the War Refugee
Board. An executive order established a new policy
that promised "to take all measures within its
power to rescue the victims of enemy oppression
who are in imminent danger of death and
otherwise to afford such victims all possible relief
and assistance consistent with the successful
prosecution of the war." This directive created a
safe haven for many Jewish Holocaust survivors.

Though many refugees embraced the opportunities
provided in America, Rosa Lublin represents the
feelings of refugees — Jewish and non-Jewish — who
never desired to leave their home countries and
who did so only under duress. Rosa longs for the
security, comfort, and familiarity of her native
Poland even as she realizes that it's the product of a
past life, a life stolen from her by the atrocities of
the Holocaust.

I 8 • THE BIG READ National Endowment for the Arts

Books

Bachrach, Susan D. TellThemWe Remember: The Story of the

Holocaust Boston: Little, Brown, 1 994.

The Holocaust as presented in the United States Holocaust

Memorial Museum and illustrated with historical

photographs. Sidebars tell the personal stories of more than

20 young people who suffered or died during the

Holocaust

Landau, Elaine. TheWarsaw Ghetto Uprising. New York:
Macmillan, 1 992.

After briefly describing the creation of the Warsaw ghetto,
the author concentrates on the 28 days of the uprising.

Meltzer, Milton. Never to Forget : The Jews of the Holocaust
New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1977.
One of the first books on the Holocaust written for
young people.

Weisel, Elie. Night 1 972. New York: Farrar, Straus, and
Giroux, 2006.

Elie Weisel's haunting account of surviving the Holocaust as
a young man.

Web sites

http://www.ushmm.org

The web site of the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum offers educational material, photo archives,
interviews with survivors, and more.

http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/timeline/timeline.htm
"A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust" produced by the
Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of
Education, University of South Florida.

http://www I .yadvashem.org.il/exhibitions/warsaw_ghetto/

home_warsaw.html

The site contains photographs taken in the Warsaw Ghetto

and offers scholarly analysis and brief captions for each

photograph.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/camp/
"Memory of the Camps," a production of PBS that
incorporates footage from the liberation of a death camp, is
one of the most definitive and unforgettable records of the
Holocaust

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust
This is a companion site to the PBS documentary on
America's response to the Holocaust It includes a timeline
of events, transcripts from the broadcast eyewitness
interviews, scanned images of original documents, maps,
photographs, and a teacher's guide.

National Endowment for the Arts

THE BIG READ • | 9

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Standards'

1 . Students read a wide range of print and non-
print texts to build an understanding of texts,
of themselves, and of the cultures of the United
States and the world; to acquire new
information; to respond to the needs and
demands of society and the workplace; and for
personal fulfillment Among these texts are
fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary
works.

2. Students read a wide range of literature from
many periods in many genres to build an
understanding of the many dimensions (e.g.,
philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human
experience.

3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to
comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate
texts. They draw on their prior experience,
their interactions with other readers and
writers, their knowledge of word meaning and
of other texts, their word identification
strategies, and their understanding of textual
features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence,
sentence structure, context, graphics).

4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written,
and visual language (e.g., conventions, style,
vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a
variety of audiences and for different purposes.

5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as
they write and use different writing process
elements appropriately to communicate with
different audiences for a variety of purposes.

6. Students apply knowledge of language structure,
language conventions (e.g., spelling and
punctuation), media techniques, figurative
language, and genre to create, critique, and
discuss print and non-print texts.

7. Students conduct research on issues and
interests by generating ideas and questions, and
by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and
synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g.,
print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to
communicate their discoveries in ways that
suit their purpose and audience.

8. Students use a variety of technological and
information resources (e.g., libraries, databases,
computer networks, video) to gather and
synthesize information and to create and
communicate knowledge.

9. Students develop an understanding of and
respect for diversity in language use, patterns,
and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups,
geographic regions, and social roles.

1 0. Students whose first language is not English
make use of their first language to develop
competency in the English language arts and to
develop understanding of content across the
curriculum.

I I . Students participate as knowledgeable,
reflective, creative, and critical members of a
variety of literacy communities.

1 2. Students use spoken, written, and visual
language to accomplish their own purposes
(e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and
the exchange of information).

This guide was developed with NCTE Standards and State Language Arts Standards in mind. Use these standards to guide and develop
your application of the curriculum.

20 * THE BIG READ National Endowment for the Arts

an opposable thumb, you can't write anything

without the aid of metaphor. Metaphor is the

mind's opposable thumb."

—CYNTHIA OZICK

NATIONAL
ENDOWMENT
FOR THE ARTS

It was a magic shawl,
it could nourish an
infant for three days
and three nights."

-CYNTHIA OZICK
from The Shawl

The Big Read is an initiative of the National
Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading
to the center of American culture. The NEA presents
The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of
Museum and Library Services and in cooperation
with Arts Midwest.

••'/& . .INSTITUTE ol , ..

•.:•.. Museum.ndLibrary

'.••.•• SERVICES

A great nation deserves great art.