The Shawl (Post #2)

Question.

What is the significance of Dr. Tree and his study? Why does Rosa reject his version of reality? What does she object to? Can you make any connections between her attitude toward Tree and her attitude toward Stella?

Response.

Dr. Tree contacts Rosa hoping to arrange a meeting. He is a part of a study that focuses on the current conditions of those who survived such events like Rosa had.

"For some months teams of medical paraphrasers have been conducting interviews with survivors, to contrast current medical paraphrase with conditions found more than three decades ago, at the opening of the camp. This, I confess, is neither my field nor my interest. My own concerns, both as a scholar of social pathology and as a human being..." (Ozick. Pg 37). Dr. Tree and his study are significant because it is just another occurence that causes Rosa to feel labeled as crazy and unaccepted as a human being. She is especially offended by the term "survivor." This becomes very evident when Dr. Tree refers to himself as a human being and Rosa as a survivor. She doesn't want to be treated as a medical study, she wants to be seen as the intellectual human being she deems herself to be. Rosa sees Dr. Tree and Stella as being one in the same. Rosa knows what Dr. Tree's intentions are and she believes that Stella agrees with Tree's ideas.

"Drop in the hole! Disease! It comes from Stella, everything! Stella saw what this letter was, she could see from the envelope-Dr.Stella! Kansas-Iowa Clinical Social Pathology, a fancy hotel, this is the cure for the taking of a life! Angel of Death!" (Ozick. Pg 39). They both want to "help" Rosa, but at the same time they're causing her to become more isolated and withdrawn from reality. When Rosa gets upset she resorts to writing letters addressed to Magda, her deceased daughter whom she still considers to be alive and very successful. I think Dr. Tree and Stella have solid intentions to helping Rosa, but Rosa is so far gone in her own world that it would take much time for her to let go of the past and move on.