Oppression

Ozick’s story about Rosa can be seen as either a story or triumph, or a story of oppression, but I think that it is obvious that this is a story that is weighted on the side of oppression.
Rosa’s entire life is based around the theme of oppression considering she was a victim and survivor of the Holocaust and has transformed her current life into a relived nightmare.
I can most definitely say that her early years of life were under oppression because she was stripped of her family in more ways than one. She was taken from her family n Warsaw and put on a train, which led her to an unknown destination. From there she was put in a death march that led then to the camp, which was described in The Shawl. After being forced to live like a caged animal by inhumane men, they murder the one last thing she had to call her own, Magda. This event seems to be the beginning of the end for Rosa.
She moves to New York and seems to be dealing with dealing with the Holocaust. She has opened an antique store and seems to be doing well for herself, for antiques do not come cheap. But due to the insensitivity of her customers, they throw her into a tornado of destruction and she smashes her entire store so that no one can have the antiques that she sold.
From here, she shelters herself and nearly becomes a recluse and lives a very dirty life in cheap motel that is paid for by Stella. This new life in Miami is representative of her experience in the concentration camp all those years ago. She hardly eats, leaves her room and is living in filth. It is Rosa oppressing herself rather than someone else oppressing her but nonetheless, Rosa is still living under oppression. And it will only be Rosa who can bring herself above the oppression she is living under.