What Does The Juniper Tree Symbolize

Symbolism and Theme in “The Juniper Tree” In “The Juniper Tree”, numerous themes and symbols play on both the desires and the fears of humans. Innate human fears are played upon throughout the story, including the fear of being trapped and the more primitive fear of consumption. “The Juniper Tree” does not rely only on fears however, as it shows how you can rise above said fears and problems.
An overarching theme in many of the fairy tale stories that we have read is consumption and the perversion of food and nutrition. The concept of the monster as one that consumes and our innate fear of being consumed and the fear of consuming something that will make us impure or monstrous ourselves resonates in many literary and visual monster dialogues …show more content…
The Juniper tree itself represents a monstrosity because it is the source of both life and death, it is both, but yet it is neither. The first reaction to the juniper tree is one of happiness, and the eating of its fruit and the pricking of her finger on the tree’s thorns lead to the birth of a child “as white as snow and as red as blood,” (CITE190). However, the tree only led to the child’s birth after the consumption of its fruit. The consumption of the fruit, however, leads to the illness of the wife, and her eventual death after the birth of the child. In this way, the fear of consumption is first brought into the story. The fear of consuming something that will harm is an innate human fear and is played upon in “The Juniper Tree”. The tree itself is monstrous because it is neither good nor bad. The fruit …show more content…
The boy reaching into the chest to obtain the apple and ultimately being trapped and killed by its closure shows the more violent fear of being trapped. The story also shows the hope of being freed from entrapment. The boy is abused by the stepmother and hurt by his father’s passivity, but is granted freedom through his transformation into a bird. The boy now has wings and can fly and distance himself from his troubles, he is no longer trapped. The boy gifts this ability to escape entrapment to his sister towards the end of the story. A surface deep reading of the work may deem that the shoes given by the boy to his sister Marlene are merely an aesthetic item. However, these shoes may symbolize something very simple, the new ability of Marlene to walk away from her situation and escape the passivity of the father and the soon to be-ended evil of her own mother. The shoes may also symbolize the ability of Marlene to change social stations, escaping from her “poverty” to a world in which she can have the wealth to have new red

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