James Dufault Professor Jacobs ENC 1102 15 April, 2014 The Symbolic Elements and Fairy Tale Lore

Analyzed Within The Thing In The Forest by A.S. Byatt

Dufault, 1

The short fiction The Thing in the Forest by A.S. Byatt chronologically explores the effects of wide-scale evacuation, primarily the overbearing interruption of the evacuees lives. Over one million children in the United Kingdom were transported to rural areas, many of them isolated from their families for up to five years. In the short hours leading up to aerial attacks from Germany, the British government succeeded in transporting them all, starting September 1 to September 3, 1939. (Rusby, 2008). Understanding and keeping these astounding facts in mind, The Thing in The Forest is a biographical and historical novelette that has succeeded in binging the experience to life through the eyes of two little girls that meet on one of the transporter trains by happenstance, immediately bonding, They shared a square of chocolate discussed whether it was a sort of holiday or a sort of punishment or a bit of both. (Byatt, 303). Beginning with the massive evacuation plan taking place, elements of fairy tale lore and a powerful delivery of imagery is revealed though the perspective of the two female protagonists, Primrose and Penny, who immediately bond. They shared a square of chocolate discussed whether it was a sort of holiday or a sort of punishment or a bit of both. (Byatt, 303). They

Dufault, 2 are symbolic representations of Byatt confronting her own trials growing up amidst the recovery of the Second World War. Therefore, the characters she created are symbolic of the identity crisis and the trauma shared by everybody who grew up throughout the 1940s. A.S. Byatt was born in the United Kingdom the year 1939. She expertly chose the hidden voices of two evacuated children from the United Kingdom to express the gravity of this global tragedy, and reflect on the circumstances she must have encountered herself. Early on, the tone of outright fear and desperation, as a sort of last resort, is described starkly. In a brief second person point of view, of what could be the parents of any one of the evacuated children aboard the transport trains, it reads, How do you say to your child, I am sending you away enemy bombs may fall out of the sky I myself am staying here, in what I believe may be daily danger of burning, being buried alive perhaps a gray army rolling in on tanks over the suburbs? (Byatt, 303). It is this honesty and radical decision making of the British Government during Byatts upbringing that has fueled the creative and symbolic representation in The Thing in The Forest. In it, Byatt has described the heroic and desperate act of sending children away due to imminent tragedies. Consequently, there is a dark and grim reality underscoring the story that Byatt introduces in the thick forest that the girls adventure into. Just how far the Nazi invasion and effects it had on the young children are not explored until the young girls encounter it head on in the Forest. Somehow, in their fragmented world apart from their families, they find themselves bearing witness to one of the most repulsive creatures to ever exist. Byatt executes the grotesque nature of war and the Nazi invasion by creating an infesting monster that appeared to be moving in waves from the whole perimeter of the forest A crunching, a crackling, a crushing and added to that a gulping, heaving,

Dufault, 3 boiling, bursting, steaming sound piffs and explosions, swallowings and wallowings... Her brilliant imagery and symbolism created in the dragon the kids encounter in the forest is a sheer testimony to the impact of the Second World War. It was invading them literally and figuratively within the bounds of their confused imaginations. This physical manifestation of the war and its traumatizing effects, in a mysterious and haunting setting, is exactly why the symbolism is so powerful, as well as providing a biographical short fiction with fairy tale lore. Byatts incredible use of description and imagery paint the portrait of the protagonists Penny and Primrose perfectly, allowing the reader to be engulfed by the experience they shared. Looking back at their childhood, each of them their own questions as to what exactly they saw in the forest. Penny and Primrose were followed that day by a young girl named Alys who was boarding with them. Both of the protagonists insisted to the girl, who was much younger than even they were, to leave them alone. Alys desperately tries to cling to them and vies for their attention, but somehow as they protagonists venture further into the forest, she seemingly disappears. This fact goes unnoticed for many years after the war has ended, but is jolted in the memory of Penny, who tries to investigate the exact spot in the forest and replicate the experience. But the little girl named Alys is still unaccounted for. This suggests the loss of identity of all of the children that were boarded for so long during their childhoods and the German Blitzkrieg. Alys disappeared from the story because during that time of evacuation and upheaval of their lives, many of the individuals childhoods were robbed from them by the Nazis. Primrose, on the other hand, begins to retell their story to audiences of children. This is a

Dufault, 4 representation of her own means of reflecting on the experience with the dragon in the forest, including as much detail from the terrifying event as she can to the listeners while reconstructing her personal identity. Similarly, the thousands of Jewish children that were being struggled out of their native European countries have had to confront the reality of their lives being destroyed. The book called Hidden Children by Howard Greenfeld is a collection of first-hand experience with the devastation of World War II, particularly the Jewish Holocaust. Hidden children is a term used to describe the children that were smuggled out of their home countries to neighboring countries of Germany or hidden within Germany with cruel restrictions. Consequently, they all had to endure the horrifying reality of losing the ones they loved and living a life full of tragedy. Some people that went into hiding were still infants, and had been separated from their parents to stay with relatives, and were never reunited again. Therefore, it is with a unanimous outpour of emotion that this book delivers stories about the death of their childhoods at the hands of the Nazis. These young people, most of whom lived with strangers in unfamiliar surroundings, found it difficult to trust their hoststhey were always afraid that they might be discovered and captured. Most didnt know why yet they knew that their lives were in danger. (Greenfeld, 83). It is that reality that caught up with the characters Primrose and Penny. Just as their parents and loved ones who were still in London at the time of them being boarded away for hiding, the real danger was that they were victims of a catastrophic war. The tragedy of the loss of their natural lives and potential futures was manifested in the creature that approached the girls in the forest, possessing the qualities of the Second World War itself. Amazingly, A.S. Byatt did a regal act of bravery in depicting her tale of reconstruction and confrontation.

Dufault, 5 It is with a compassionate heart and point of view that A.S. Byatt told the story. It is one that reflects the inner coping methods and self-preservation of a generation. Although the crucial early years of bonding with ones friends and family in a nurturing and safe environment was taken away from so many, that feeling of security and love can be reinforced later on in life. When the hidden voices of these people that suffered at such an early age could finally be heard, true healing begins. A.S. Byatts The Thing in the Forest is a triumph of fairty tale lore through use of imaginative setting and descriptions, as well as the manifestation of the war itself through symbolism and point of view.

Works Cited Byatt, A.S. The Thing in the Forest. New York: New Yorker, 2002. Print. Greenfeld, Howard. The Hidden Children. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993. Print. Rusby, JSM, and F Tasker. Long-Term Effects Of The British Evacuation Of Children During World War 2 On Their Adult Mental Health. Aging & Mental Health 13.3 (2009): 391404. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.