Close Study

In the need to appeal to readers, authors include distinctive features that encourage the audience to further explore and engage in the novel. The novel of Briar Rose composed by Jane Yolen, is explored through the use inclusion of features such as parallelism, analogies and an authors note.
Parallelism is used in the Novel to investigate the similarities between a traditional fairytale of "Sleeping Beauty" and it's relationship to the historical context of the Holocaust. To portray Gemma's real life experience and involvement in the Holocaust, Yolen uses the fairytale as an analogy to appeal to the readers and assist in a better interpretation and widens the audience's understanding. To conclude the novel, Yolen includes an authors note which consists of historical information in recognition of the Holocaust. It challenges the readers to come to terms with the events and to experience a sense of empathy, contradicting the common assumption of a fairytale, living happily ever after. Through these distinctive features, Briar Rose is intended to appeal to a wide range of audiences.

Parallelism is a distictive feature used in the text to investigate the similarities between the traditional fairytale "Sleeping Beauty" and the historical context of the Holocaust. Parallelism is used throughout out the novel Briar Rose to help encourage the reader to become engaged with the novel and to gain an understanding of the realism contrasting with a fairytale. The chapters are parralled through the use of history being written in italics and the main story, Becca's story. The parallelism creates links between the past and present which is the main idea in the text and allows for an interplay between thje past and present allowing for connections to be made between the events of the holocaust and the character of Gemma and her story. his use of interplay between past and present keeps the audience engaged in the novel as parts of the story are revealed slowly through each of...