Answer:
Despair
Step-by-step explanation:
Despair is the feeling of hopelessness, distress, and suffering. This theme was addressed by the author in "The Shawl". Rosa Lublin was marched to the concentration camp with some others during the Nazi regime. She had a fifteen months old baby whom she tried to conceal from the eyes of their oppressors. Rosa throughout the story was plagued with uncertainty about the condition they now found themselves and was fearful of the survival of her baby Magda. That was why she tried to conceal her with a shawl.
She also tried not to have a direct confrontation with her niece Stella who took the shawl that was supposed to protect Magda from the elements. This was so as not to expose her little baby to those who might take her life.These words highlight her despair:
"It seemed to Rosa Lublin that the whole peninsula of Florida was weighted down with regret. Everyone had left behind a real life. Here they had nothing. They were all scarecrows, blown about under the murdering sunball with empty ribcages."