Briar Rose: Features of Fairy Tales Used to Explore Themes
Briar Rose
Songvu Vu
Mrs Joyce
ESSAY: How has Jane Yolen made use of the features of a fairytale to explore the themes in Briar Rose?
Jane Yolen, author of Briar Rose, combines both fairytale and historical attributes in one work. Based on the old tale of Sleeping Beauty, Briar Rose is a fairy tale within a fairy tale however, the traditional ‘happily ever after’ notion does not apply. Through fairy tale elements of fantasy, recovery, escape and consolation; Yolen has been able to explore underlying themes in Briar Rose, including the brutality of human nature, courage and the triumph of human spirit over adversity, the ability to survive and endure, and love.
The brutality of human nature is a central theme communicated throughout Briar Rose through the concept of genocide and the Holocaust: ‘one thousand a day’, and in particular in the middle section titled ‘home’ and through Josef’s vivid recount of his experiences in the Holocaust. The brutality of human nature is introduced by Yolen through the analogy ‘but not the bad fairy… not the one in black with big black boots and silver eagles on her hat’ where Yolen equates the Nazi guards of concentration camps to the ‘bad fairy’ in Sleeping Beauty. As evidently seen, Yolen introduces the concept of human brutality through fairy tale elements as she allures to Sleeping Beauty and the ‘bad fairy’ that will let ‘a great mist cover the castle and everyone will die’. The mist in a sense, represents the gas in the gas chambers where the prisoners where killed or Gemma’s imperfect knowledge of her family and of her past. In addition, the ‘barbs’ and the ‘briars’ symbolise the impassable thickets that aimed to keep the prisoners in the camp- rather than to keep outsiders out- that Josef describes as ‘living in the belly of the wolf’. In addition, the briars can also represent the difficulties that need to be overcome in order to extinguish the brutality of human nature. Yolen focuses the responder’s
Songvu Vu
Mrs Joyce
ESSAY: How has Jane Yolen made use of the features of a fairytale to explore the themes in Briar Rose?
Jane Yolen, author of Briar Rose, combines both fairytale and historical attributes in one work. Based on the old tale of Sleeping Beauty, Briar Rose is a fairy tale within a fairy tale however, the traditional ‘happily ever after’ notion does not apply. Through fairy tale elements of fantasy, recovery, escape and consolation; Yolen has been able to explore underlying themes in Briar Rose, including the brutality of human nature, courage and the triumph of human spirit over adversity, the ability to survive and endure, and love.
The brutality of human nature is a central theme communicated throughout Briar Rose through the concept of genocide and the Holocaust: ‘one thousand a day’, and in particular in the middle section titled ‘home’ and through Josef’s vivid recount of his experiences in the Holocaust. The brutality of human nature is introduced by Yolen through the analogy ‘but not the bad fairy… not the one in black with big black boots and silver eagles on her hat’ where Yolen equates the Nazi guards of concentration camps to the ‘bad fairy’ in Sleeping Beauty. As evidently seen, Yolen introduces the concept of human brutality through fairy tale elements as she allures to Sleeping Beauty and the ‘bad fairy’ that will let ‘a great mist cover the castle and everyone will die’. The mist in a sense, represents the gas in the gas chambers where the prisoners where killed or Gemma’s imperfect knowledge of her family and of her past. In addition, the ‘barbs’ and the ‘briars’ symbolise the impassable thickets that aimed to keep the prisoners in the camp- rather than to keep outsiders out- that Josef describes as ‘living in the belly of the wolf’. In addition, the briars can also represent the difficulties that need to be overcome in order to extinguish the brutality of human nature. Yolen focuses the responder’s