Briar Rose

1
Briar Rose

• Examination Revision

2
What do you need to know about your answer for
this question?

• Paper 2
• Section II Module B Close Study of Text
• 20 marks
• Attempt ONE question from Questions 4 7
• Allow about 40 minutes for this section
• Answer the question in a SEPARATE writing booklet

3
What do examiners want to see you do in this
response?

• In your answer, you will be assessed on how well
  you
• demonstrate understanding of a texts distinctive
  qualities and how these shape meaning
• organise, develop and express ideas using
  language appropriate to audience, purpose and
  form

4
Genre

• Yolen, a popular fairytale analyst, uses the
  fairy tale structure to construct her ideas for
  this story
• The fairy tale was originally used to warn
  children of danger
• In this case, the appropriation warns people of
  danger in the modern world
• The elements of dark (evil), light (goodness),
  hope and magic exist in Briar Rose
• The novel concentrates on human experience (hope,
  fear, search for love, moral order), as does the
  fairytale

5

• This story contains similar features to the
  traditional fairytale
• the wicked witch becomes the evil circumstance of
  the Holocaust
• the princess becomes the young woman, Gemma, who
  falls victim to her historical era
• the prince becomes the Resistance movement who
  save her in their attempts to save the world and
  themselves
• Magic, of sorts, occurs with the falling
  asleep, or the near death of Gemma, and her
  reawakening

6
Structure

• Binary structure within the twin narrative
  space, the story moves between the real present
  and the fantasy fairytale
• The narratives merge towards the end
• Even the past is active and present. For Gemma,
  the past is a reality, as it is for Josef
• The love story moves between Becca and Stan and
  Gemma and Aaron, suggesting the happily ever
  after notion

7
Structure Three sections

• Home
• Gemmas and Beccas story.
• Their relationship with one another is
  established. The reader feels that Becca
  becomes Gemma
• The motivation of the story is established

8
Structure Three sections

• Castle
• Josefs narration
• The story is told in the past, as it happened.
  The reader forgets that Becca and Magda are
  listening
• Becca (and the reader) learn her grandmothers
  story and understand the metaphor
• Becca (and the reader) understand, not only the
  suffering of one person, but the suffering of
  many people and consider humanitys ability to
  respond and learn from other experiences.

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Structure Three sections

• Home Again
• The story comes full circle
• The resolution is reached Becca understands her
  grandmother and therefore understands herself
  better
• The mystery is explained
• Becca passes on her story to her nieces and
  nephews to continue the cycle of storytelling and
  the passing on of the warning
• The romance is satisfied
• The audience realises a collective need to
  understand human nature and retell stories as
  part of a moral literary heritage

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Chapters 1, 2

• Establish structural device of the novel, moving
  from past to present, in a binary structure
• The fairytale metaphor is introduced
• The relationship between Becca and Gemma is
  established
• Describe characteristics of both Gemma and Becca

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Chapters 4, 5

• The audience begins to recognise the allusion to
  history. We see that the bad fairy is the one
  in black with black boots and silver eagles on
  her hat.
• The curse metaphor is established. There is a
  dramatic irony in that the reader is aware of the
  curse, but Becca is not.
• Beccas devotion to her grandmother is firm. She
  makes the promise

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Chapters 5, 6

• Gemmas description of the mist is a
  description of how people were killed in Nazi
  prison camps the death by sleep metaphor
• Becca the child is mystified by this, but Becca
  the adult sees the metaphor
• It echoes the idea that the living have to come
  to terms with history, not those who are dead
• These chapters foreshadow Beccas trip and the
  conversation with Josef

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Chapters 7, 8

• Beccas question-asking demonstrates that she
  also owns the story and that she wishes to share
  it
• forever refers to death, but also to the fact
  that the tragedy of the Holocaust remains with
  the victims and their families forever
• The audience perceives that Becca has a social
  conscience and that she is prepared to search for
  the truth and for good to triumph over evil
• Becca collects Gemmas box. She has to put it
  down because it is too heavy. The symbol is
  important.
• Stan also has a past. This does not only tell the
  audience that both characters have something in
  common, but it emphasises the importance of
  uncovering the past to understand the present and
  the future.

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Chapters 9, 10

• The symbol of the barbs is introduced. It
  foreshadows the barbed wire later on in the
  story.
• Gemma refuses to answer the girls questions to
  protect them from the truth, but also to protect
  herself from the truth.
• It also mirrors the attempts to keep the
  Holocaust hidden from the world during the Nazi
  reign
• Becca understands some details about Gemmas name
• She also realises that Gemma has disguised her
  story in the fairytale, revealing the power of
  the fairytale to contain the truth about things
  humanity most want or fear

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Chapters 11, 12

• Harvey tells his story. Importantly, he has not
  healed and his experiences are still keen
• Fairytale and reality meet through this encounter

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Chapters 13, 14

• The notion of a prince or rescuer is revealed
• The audience is propelled to continue reading in
  response to Harvey Goldmans credible account
  that no one could survive this event. Yet, Gemma
  did.
• This aspect of the story is paralleled to the
  budding romance between Becca and Stan. This is
  important, because as we hear more of the
  horrific story of death and fear, we are
  positioned to believe in love and hope

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Chapters 15, 16

• The Polish connection is established.
• Becca tells Stan, Whats past is prologue. The
  implication is that we need to understand the
  past to understand the present and the future
  many references to this throughout the text.

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Chapters 17, 18

• Becca is taking the trip to Poland. She wants to
  live the story through experiencing it first
  hand.
• Yolen is telling us that we need to understand
  the past to understand the future and that if we
  dont talk about the past, we will forget it and
  possibly repeat it.

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Chapters 19, 20

• Perhaps some religious connotation in the way the
  story is told ie the use of And to begin a
  sentence tells that it is a continuing story the
  thorns and magically parted (Red Sea), as if
  a salvation of the Jews was meant
• Magda and Becca eat gingerbread overtones of
  another fairytale. Is the connection to do with
  the unanticipated dominance of evil over the
  innocent
• What is the role of the Polish teacher who did
  not return? Was this teacher removed? Is this an
  example of anti-Semitism? Is it evidence that
  history is hidden and therefore humanity cannot
  learn from it?
• Magda is a positive character. We learn from her
  that we shouldnt be absorbed in the misery of
  the past, but should look to the future with
  hope.

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Chapters 21, 22

• Again, Sharna and Sylvia do not want to hear the
  story. They represent the inability of people to
  deal with difficult stories
• Note comparisons to people from Chelmno who do
  not want to answer the questions of Becca and
  Magda
• The implication is that the locals from Chelmno
  were aware of the atrocity occurring in their
  town, but they did nothing to stop it. They now
  live with that knowledge. The audience is forced
  to ask how they would act in a similar
  circumstance

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Chapters 23, 24

• Magda says, It is not crazy to know the past, it
  is only crazy to live there. Consider Harvey
  Goldman, whose bitterness is debilitating
• Josef states that he is only part of the story,
  intmating that his is only one story of the many
  that existed

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Chapters 25, 26, 27

• Josef is an ideal narrator. He is honest and he
  does not glamorise his own story.
• He refers to his designed ignorance of what was
  happening around him to protect himself from it
  political amnesia. He did not live in response
  to the moral implications of his time, but he
  lived for the moment
• We hear a tone of guilt, but we are not asked to
  feel sorry for him
• As he tells the story, his tone is objective.
  However, the reader makes emotional responses in
  relation to the events of the story

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Chapters 28, 29, 30

• The ring is a symbol of something good his
  father was also a resister and the love between
  his parents was true.
• In chapter 29, we hear a graphic description of
  the camp and the cruelty that happened there, as
  well as the circumstance of Gemmas sleep.
• There is a strong use of emotive and descriptive
  language to tell how the other characters reacted
  to Gemmas awakening
• The reference to Oskar Schindler reminds the
  audience that people can recognise evil, and can
  make a positive response to it
• The entire story (secret) is unravelled and the
  fairytale metaphor, Briar Rose, is revealed.
  Gemma had been saved from the briars (barbed
  wire) by Aron the Avenger and kissed awake by
  Josef. She had been named princess by her
  saviours and indeed, had married the prince
  that had saved her
• We learn that it is essential to human dignity
  that we resist evil, rather than accept it, thus
  the story telling and heroism of the partisans

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Characters - Gemma

• We see her as the old woman storyteller as well
  as the young Jewish woman of her past
• She is used as a literary device a tool through
  which to tell the story
• She starts out as an enigma even her own family
  do not know her story, but she ends up being
  symbolic of the vast tragedy of the Holocaust
• She is attractive, sensitive and gentle,
  intelligent and intuitive in her response to
  Becca. The realisation of her true past is ironic
  to her character
• She is the symbol of truth a symbol of both
  human capacity for evil and hope and love

25
Characters - Becca

• The key protagonist in the present telling of the
  story
• Also intuitive, loyal, caring, loved and loving
  in her relationships with Gemma and with her
  father and tolerant with her sisters (ugly step?)
• Her goodness is rewarded with her own prince?
  Not sure about this this argument makes women
  in this story submissive and needy.
• She is a recognised social advocate. (Her
  newspaper) She wants to know about Gemmas story
  to satisfy a need for truth as well as for any
  other reason
• Her decision to travel alone to Poland reveals an
  independent person
• However, she is essentially an uninteresting
  person. Is this because she is the vessel through
  which the story is told?

26
Characters - Josef

• The most complex and interesting character
• Honest and humble about his involvement in
  history and in Gemmas rescue
• He feels guilt and has spent time trying to
  forgive himself for his ignorance of what was
  happening in Germany at he beginning of the war.
  He refuses to feel sorry for himself, despite his
  experiences as a homosexual in his world.
• The opportunity to tell his story is both
  cathartic, but also painful and disturbing

27
Characters - Magda

• Open to possibilities cheerful and engaging
• She accepts life as it is
• Has pride in her self and her country, but she
  understands the suffering that has shaped her
  culture. If one is not optimistic in Poland,
  then there is much to weep about.
• She is wise in her response to Josefs story It
  is not crazy to know the past. It is only crazy
  to live there.

28
Characters Sylvia and Sharna

• Reference to the Cinderella fairytale
• They are shallow characters. This is important
  because they act as a foil for Becca
• Comment on Sylvias occupation as a social worker
• Comment on Sharnas occupation as a real estate
  agent
• Not creative or respectful in their response to
  their grandmother or their family

29
Characters Mr and Mrs Berlin

• Father is loving, supportive, witty. Very
  important to Becca and her quest for the story
• Mothers role in simplified comment on the gaps
  she leaves in her own story

30
Characters - Stan

• A credible, strong character, who doesnt care
  about appearance
• Intellectual, flirtatious, subtle
• Supports her quest for information because he
  understands the need for it
• Provides love interest reflects her
  grandmothers love story, provides hope for love
  to live on (human need)

31
Characters - Aron

• His senseless death symbolises the slaughter of
  war

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Themes Genocide and the Holocaust

• Yolen is interested in focussing readers
  attention on the effects of the Holocaust an
  event which is seen to be the greatest crime in
  human history
• She also wants us to know that we can learn about
  history from people, not only books
• Books do not tell us how people feel people do
• The lesson is that we all need to know about it
  to prevent it from happening again Yolen keeps
  telling us that this is the story of millions,
  not jus the characters in this book

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Themes Facing the truth, growing up, moving on

• A novel about incovering truth and dealing with
  it
• Hiding the truth is damaging at its most basic
  level, it leads to ignorance (Becca and her
  sisters)
• This is echoed in Josefs dealing with his story.
  His willingness t tell the story reveals how
  healing the truth can be
• Stans story
• Finally, Becca is able to tell the story (the
  fairytale) in the same way that her grandmother
  did)

34
Themes Love and Family

• The story begins and ends with Gemma
• The relationship between Gemma and Aron. Their
  daughter.
• Beccas relationship with Gemma
• Magda and her aunt
• Becca and Stan
• Lots of examples of unconditional love and
  generosity

35
Themes Courage and the human spirit

• The story of Josef and the other partisans it
  is better to live and act with morality and
  humanity than to subject yourself to evil and
  also allow others to be subjected
• Magda says in reference to Josef, sometimes
  living takes more courage than dying.

36
Themes the quest for meaning

• This is a central theme of most literature
• In this novel, the quest for meaning is the
  opposite of indifference or denial. The quest for
  meaning is Beccas goal
• We feel hopeful and understand her feeling of
  liberation when she finds that meaning

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Themes the oppression of minorities

• Beccas occupation as a journalist for a minority
  newspaper
• The persecution of minority groups during the
  Holocaust
• Josefs position as a homosexual
• Yolen reminds us that minorities are always a t
  risk, even in our supposedly enlightened society

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Past questions

• 2005
• Question 4 Prose Fiction (20 marks)
• Identify a key episode in your prescribed text.
• Analyse the ways in which this key episode
  reflects both the ideas and the characteristics
  of the text as a whole.
• Present your ideas in ONE of the following forms
• a speech at an HSC study day or
• a contribution to an HSC Resources site
• The prescribed texts are
• Robert Cormier, We All Fall Down or
• Amin Maalouf, Ports of Call or
• Jane Yolen, Briar Rose

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2004

• Question 4 Prose Fiction (20 marks)
• On the basis of the distinctive features of your
  prescribed text, argue for its inclusion in the
  Top Prose Fiction list.
• The prescribed texts are
• Robert Cormier, We All Fall Down or
• Amin Maalouf, Ports of Call or
• Jane Yolen, Briar Rose

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2003

• Question 5 Prose Fiction (20 marks)
• What aspects of your prescribed text had the
  greatest impact on you?
• In your response you should reflect on both the
  ideas and prose fiction techniques used in the
  text you have studied.
• The prescribed texts are
• Robert Cormier, We All Fall Down or
• Jane Yolen, Briar Rose