The Juniper Tree

When I first considered the transformation of the boy to the bird in the Juniper Tree, I thought about the brothers and birds stories that we read last week. These brothers went from human to bird and then to human again, and all by the help of their sister. Although, the reason for the transformation to and from the bird is not as explicitly stated as it is in the brothers to birds stories, the brother seems to turn into the bird because his sister, Marlene, took the bones and wrapped them in silk and buried them under the juniper tree. However, somethings are remarkably different. Unlike the brothers into birds stories, the young boy is already dead and it is his bones that turn into a bird. Also it seems that with the death of the stepmother, the boy is able to become human again even after he has died, he is not necessarily saved by someone in particular. It seems as though the tree is what gives him this sort of life when he is buried there. I also found it interesting that the boys' mother was buried there too and was wondering what significance that had. I thought that his song was also interesting. It makes sense that he says that his mother killed him, but I found the fact that he chirped that his father ate him was weird considering he rewards him in the end, and that the father is oblivious to the fact that he is eating his child. It is his beautiful voice as a bird that allows him to give to those what they deserve, and for the stepmother that is stoning which seems to create human life out of the bird. In closing and in regards to the prompt, I really don't know where he lies on the scale of human and animal, but I think that its interesting that this is a transformation in which the dead is transformed into a bird and then has life again, rather than the pattern we have seen in the brothers to bird stories where they simply go from human to bird and back again.