Rosa does believe Magda will die soon, but she is kept safe in the magic shawl. Rosa thinks Stella wants Magda to die so she can sink her teeth into her. Stella also grows but not much she does not menstruate, and neither does Rosa. Magda lives to walk but does not walk well because her belly full of air makes her wobbly. Stella says Magda looks Aryan, and Stella’s tone makes Rosa shudder and think of a cannibal. Magda is very grave and very quiet she is mute now that the milk has dried up. Rosa believes this is a magic shawl, and it keeps Magda alive.

She sucks the shawl instead and floods it with wetness, giving it the good flavor of “milk of linen.” Magda is a good baby and never complains even though she tries both breasts and gets nothing. Rosa wishes she could leave Magda in one of the villages they pass, but she cannot move beyond the line or she will be shot, and she does not know if a woman would actually take Magda. One would think Magda is one of “their” babies (“their” being the Nazi guards). Her face is round, with blue eyes and smooth yellow hair Rosa’s complexion is dark. She looks down at Magda, safe in the shawl’s windings. Rosa does not feel hunger anymore rather, she feels like she is faint, in a trance. There is never enough milk for Magda and Rosa never stops walking. Stella is fourteen and sometimes jealous of Magda, wanting to be held and rocked. Rosa’s daughter Magda is hidden and wound up in the shawl Rosa carries. Rosa and her niece Stella are walking the roads together, both freezing cold.

The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick