Briar Rose

In Briar Rose, the author Jane Yolen, introduces the audience to a variety of significant ideas that she portrays throughout the text and uses interesting techniques to convey these ideas. She reveals the concept of parallelism by intertwining the stories: Sleeping Beauty and the Holocaust. She uses symbolism to highlight the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust. Yolen uses postmodern ideas with the use of flashback of the past to retell a fairytale version that Becca’s grandmother Gemma told her growing up. Becca the protagonist discovers this story to be an allegory of the Holocaust.
Briar Rose has an authentic narrative structure as two parallel stories of the Holocaust and Brair Rose are intertwined and told simultaneously. The novel incorporates Gemma’s version of the fairytale which is a metaphor for her own life and experiences during the holocaust. Her personal story corresponds with the fairy tale, and she passes this information on to her granddaughter through her dying words “I was the princess in the castle. The Prince kissed me.” This refers to Gemma’s experience in the gas chamber when Aron resuscitates her and gives her a second chance at life. Her dying wish was for Becca to unravel the mystery shown when she says “Promise me you will find the castle. Promise me you will find the prince.” This repetition “promise,” highlights Gemma’s dying request to Becca to discover the parallel story and the truth behind Briar Rose. The old German fairy tale Brair Rose is an appropriation of the Holocaust, a postmodern concept of using intertextuality within the narrative. The structure is unique in the way it switches between the original fairytale and the allegory of Gemma’s life. The structure is unique in the way it switches between the original fairytale and Gemma’s life.
In order to add variety, different voices are used to portray different aspects of the story. Yolen adapts the language use to different speakers and situations in the novel.