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
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
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