Vicious (Adjective)
– dangerously aggressive
– (of an act) intending to hurt badly, or (of a person or animal) likely to be violent

Taken from Cynthia Ozick’s “The Shawl”

“——Magda was dumb. Even the laugh that came when the ash-stippled wind made a clown out of Magda’s shawl was only the air-blown showing of her teeth. Even when the lice, head lice and body lice, crazed her so that she became as wild as one of the big rats that plundered the barracks at daybreak looking for carrion, she rubbed and scratched and kicked and bit and rolled without a whimper. But now Magda’s mouth was spilling a long vicious rope of clamor.”

In Cynthia Ozick’s “The Shawl, vicious was used to show Magda’s feelings when the shawl was taken away from her. It was said that even though she had other problems such as lice, she didn’t care, not a single cry about it, just as long as she have the shawl. Because of the use of “vicious” within the text, I was able to understand that the shawl is really important for Magda more than anything. Even though she doesn’t talk, the way she expressed herself in this way makes the reader somewhat empathize with her .

source:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/vicious
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vicious