At first glance, the transformation in The Juniper Tree doesn’t strike the reader as anything out of the ordinary (as far as these matters are concerned, at least), as the bird seems to function less as a beast and more as a boy trapped in a bird’s body—he thinks, he plans, and he works to seek revenge (which, whether he knows or not, is tantamount to working for his own resurrection), but he must do so within the confines of the avian practices of flying and singing. In other words, then, this “transformation” is just that—a change across forms, not minds. Unlike other fairy tale transformations, being a bird is a means to an end, not a new condition to be accepted; the brother in The Juniper Tree does not have to deal with the concerns of a bird in the same way that the brother in Brother and Sister must try to live a happy life as a fawn, feeling the call of the hunt and what not.
Interestingly, however, not all the stories in this tale type operate in the same way. Sometimes the boy’s song is sung by a whole group of birds (The Girl and the Boy), and the boy himself is never transformed or resurrected. Other stories (like The Milk-White Doo) mention the bird coming from the boy’s bones but ascribe no conscious thought to the creature, ending abruptly with the (step)mother’s death. At the root of all the stories is the idea that the bird is in some sense a manifestation of the boy’s (and the reader’s) cry for justice against the wrongdoer, but only rarely is this link spelled out as “the boy’s mind was reborn into a bird’s body.” The fact that the bird’s song is always from the boy’s perspective is only incidental—for one, a bird’s song is more associated with identification than communication, and no one seems to understand the song’s story anyway.
The boy’s birth, death, transformation, and resurrection (the last of which, as we have seen, is not too common outside of The Juniper Tree) are all heavily tied to the women in his life (“birth” might seem obvious, but the story gives it a magical emphasis), but ultimately his own efforts in killing his stepmother are what allow his rebirth. Given the boy’s rather complicated life history, then, it’s difficult to say which gender comes out on top, so to speak. We could point to the violent death of the stepmother as just another example of patriarchy in action, but so much of the boy’s existence and the story’s plot is owed to the actions of women (2/3 of which are positive figures!). I’ll call it a draw.
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I like the point you make about how his birth death and resurrection are all tied to the women in his life. I had never really considered that during each of these a different woman is responsible for what is happening to him, whether good or bad. Along those lines, we have seen how women can be portrayed as being evil especially stepmothers, but sisters and mothers who have died have are represented positively in the stories. The Juniper Tree definitely upholds these ideas of women.
ReplyDeleteIf we took a Bettleheim like perspective on this story, without dedicating too much credence to specific detail like he does in his "Hansel and Gretel" article, how would a child interpret and be molded by the reading of this story? Is the child being taught not to fear death? Would the child be comforted that even if his fate be tragic, some supernatural force will enforce justice, to the point of resurrection? If we ignore the death aspect, an admittedly bold and perhaps misguided gesture, the story might inspire an abused child to speak out against its attacker. The bird's song cries for help, being outspoken in a way that the boy wasn't. It might be damaging that this call doesn't come until after death, as if one can wait until after the tragedy occurred to ask for help. Ultimately, this story depends more on the child's ability to distinguish fact from fiction that other stories we've read in order for valuable lessons to be wrought.
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