Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
Cassandra Land
Essay Question: Evaluate the effectiveness of Jane Yolen’s use of fairytale conventions and themes to explore issues associated with the Holocaust in Briar Rose?
Jane Yolen uses fairytale conventions as an allegory to portray her version to the Holocaust. Fairytales original purpose was to teach people about morals and lessons regarding powerful emotions like: greed, hate, envy, and jealousy. The story of Briar Rose idolizes three characters Becca, Gemma, and Josef Potocki. The Briar Rose story is an allegory for the events in Chelmno. The themes in the story written by Yolen, these themes vary from magic to courage. The structure of the novel goes back and forth through time. When the novel refers to the past the words are written in italics.
Gemma uses the Briar Rose story as an allegory fort the events in Chelmno. The use of Becca’s dialogue “Seepin Boot”, gives the audience visual imagery on the age of Becca, when Gemma starts telling the story of Briar Rose. The contrast between Becca and her two sisters, Shana and Sylvia, shows how close they were to her grandmother, Gemma. As the three sisters are in the nursing home visiting there dying Gemma, Shana and Sylvia brush past the elderly patients are rush towards the elevator whilst Becca is talking to both patients and nurses. Juxtaposition is used throughout the novel; an example of this is when Becca finds four different names from her records. The names found in her “box of mysteries” are Gitl, Genevieve, Gemma and Briar Rose; the names contribute to the idea of not knowing Gemma’s name or origin. Josef Potocki’s role in the novel is to tell the story of his experience of the Holocaust and his finding of Gemma. He saves the life of Gemma by giving her mouth to mouth after she was found in the mount of dead bodies. The characters in the novel align with the fairytale of Briar Rose, for in the story the main character did not have a name to go off by, and she had no idea of her heritage.
Essay Question: Evaluate the effectiveness of Jane Yolen’s use of fairytale conventions and themes to explore issues associated with the Holocaust in Briar Rose?
Jane Yolen uses fairytale conventions as an allegory to portray her version to the Holocaust. Fairytales original purpose was to teach people about morals and lessons regarding powerful emotions like: greed, hate, envy, and jealousy. The story of Briar Rose idolizes three characters Becca, Gemma, and Josef Potocki. The Briar Rose story is an allegory for the events in Chelmno. The themes in the story written by Yolen, these themes vary from magic to courage. The structure of the novel goes back and forth through time. When the novel refers to the past the words are written in italics.
Gemma uses the Briar Rose story as an allegory fort the events in Chelmno. The use of Becca’s dialogue “Seepin Boot”, gives the audience visual imagery on the age of Becca, when Gemma starts telling the story of Briar Rose. The contrast between Becca and her two sisters, Shana and Sylvia, shows how close they were to her grandmother, Gemma. As the three sisters are in the nursing home visiting there dying Gemma, Shana and Sylvia brush past the elderly patients are rush towards the elevator whilst Becca is talking to both patients and nurses. Juxtaposition is used throughout the novel; an example of this is when Becca finds four different names from her records. The names found in her “box of mysteries” are Gitl, Genevieve, Gemma and Briar Rose; the names contribute to the idea of not knowing Gemma’s name or origin. Josef Potocki’s role in the novel is to tell the story of his experience of the Holocaust and his finding of Gemma. He saves the life of Gemma by giving her mouth to mouth after she was found in the mount of dead bodies. The characters in the novel align with the fairytale of Briar Rose, for in the story the main character did not have a name to go off by, and she had no idea of her heritage.