Briar Rose Parallelism

In what ways does the author draw you into the world of the novel?

The author of Briar Rose, Jane Yolen draws her audience into the world of the novel through the use of the main distinctive features of parallelism, allegory, themes and the use of the authors note. Firstly parallelism is used in the texts to investigate the similarities between the traditional fairy tale 'Sleeping Beauty' and historical concepts of the Holocaust by alternating chapters. Another notable distinctive feature is the use of Allegory to act as a metaphor in which one story represents another. The use of themes explores the idea of history and memory and gives different views of reality. the use of the Authors note gives the audience a rude shock as to the real
factual experiences faced in the World War II Holocaust.

Allegory is used in this text as an extended metaphor to show one story through another allowing the audience to make connections with a perhaps well-known story.
This technique is evident in the novel when Gemma tells her life story to her grandchildren through the fairytale of Briar Rose. Again when Josef recounts his life through the war and when Gemma appeared in his life, telling her story. There is an alternate story that holds the audiences attention because they have more than one topic to focus on or think about e.g. within the fairy tale the prince says “But do you know courage?…And saying so he put his right hand into the thorns.” When Josef is portrayed as the prince we find out he also did something similar “Josef practically strolled up to the fence and, heedless of cuts to his hands & feet, flung himself up and over the wire.” The audience is now made aware of the events that will occur through the fairytale before they do in real life however some events will only barely touch on the fairytale expectation. For example the prince that saved Briar Rose is not your typical prince in real life, Josef is homosexual and therefore his intentions with Gemma are merely to save her
life.

The story of Sleeping Beauty is used to act as a metaphor for Gemma’s experiences during the Holocaust and the truth of her life is revealed through this. Through Gemma’s re-telling of sleeping beauty, the reader comes to understand the metaphor she is her identity and past. Becca understands that “it’s like the story is …. like a metaphor….” The story has been used to disguise the truth of Gemma’s life in the holocaust; this means that the story is also an allegory that relates to the real past and events of the holocaust. the metaphor includes all the victims of the Nazi brutality against the Jewish people and other groups. This creates an interesting way to communicate history and connecting it to the present. These techniques intrigue the reader and allow the responder to draw its attention and focus solely on the novel.

Use of themes explore history and memory in the novel.
There are several themes that are developed within Briar Rose including: Truth, Redemption and Hope, Heroism and Storytelling. These themes explore history and memory through the way they show different aspects of reality. Truth as a theme can be explored through a history aspect seen in the author’s note compared to the storyline in the novel and underlies the true fact that it is indeed fiction. As in the novel Gemma is seen as the only survivor at the Chelmno Detention Camp and in the Author’s note it is said by Jane Yolen …”no women who escaped from Chelmno alive”. The theme of Heroism is established through Josef’s story and recount of the events that took place. His story can be seen as a heroic one that takes place in the novel, he has the bravery of a hero “he practically strolled up to the fence and heedless of cuts to his hands and feet, flung himself up and over the wire”. Through the use of themes different versions of the history are explored, the themes create multiple narratives in the story, this provides the reader with different
perspectives.

Realistic characterisation has been used to help emphasise the real-life experiences of the main characters, and the events of the holocaust. Within the novel the audience notices materialistic characters like Shana and Sylvia who are self centred e.g. “Why couldn’t she have died in Florida” this puts emphasis on the fact that Shana doesn’t care about her grandmothers death just that it puts her in an uncomfortable position. Heroic characters like Josef who choose not to take credit for their actions “He practically strolled up to the fence and heedless of cuts to his hands and feet, flung himself over the fence”. Selfish characters like the SS men and the bad fairy e.g. “take off your clothes, and roll” commanded a voice… They were to roll in the snow until the SS men themselves were too cold to stand about watching anymore. Each of these characters are identifiable in the real world and therefore emphasise the real-life feel to the novel.

The use of so many techniques by Jane yolen has succeeded in drawing the audience in the novel and has helped us to identify with the characters in the book and follow them on their journey be it now or in the past.