After having read the novel The Shawl, I realize how much of a toll all the events in Rosa's past have taken on her. Not only has she lost a daughter, she has lost her own life in a sense. After the events that took place during the Holocaust, she is no longer willing to trust anyone or anything. She has completely isolated herself into a confined space where she doesn't let anyone in physically or emotionally. I couldn't help but to wonder, what initially caused this self-loathing since there were so many traumatic things that happened in her life time.
First the loss of Magda could have had a great effect on how she perceives people as a whole. The guards threw her 15 month old child against a fence without any remorse. However, she geared her anger towards Stella instead of the guards who were really to blame. Rosa blames so much of her misery and sorrow on Stella when in fact Stella has done nothing but good. Stella is in fact everything that Rosa would have wanted in her daughter, but for some reason because of this she becomes hostile towards all of Stella’s accomplishments rather than happy for her niece. Rosa states life as "cold cold the coldness of hell" because she now sees the world through a different perspective almost as if she is in her own living hell.
Rosa trudges through life as though something was owed to her and she never got it. Perhaps this is true, but with the loss of Magda, she might have lost her sanity as well.
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