Juxtaposition In The Upstairs Room

In the novel The Upstairs Room, written by Johanna Reiss, the main character, Annie, was eight years old when she went into hiding with her older sister, Sini, during the Germans’ occupation of Holland. The fictional book focuses on Annie and Sini’s life while being hidden for two years under the protection of the Oostervelds. Their older sister Rachel insisted on staying with their mother who had been in the hospital for a couple of weeks, in Winterswijk. Annie’s mother died the day Annie and Sini went into hiding, and immediately before their father had left to his hiding place. The three topics addressed in this captivating novel are juxtaposition, symbolism, and tone. First, Johanna Reiss uses juxtaposition to show the contrasting effect of Annie and Sini’s situations, and the events taking place in World War ll. An example of this occurring in the novel is when Annie tells the readers, “ Winterswijk was near the German border… minutes away… I was glad we lived in Winterswijk, not so close to Germany that you could see it …show more content…
When the war beginning to start Annie comes to the conclusion that, “Maybe Hitler liked Dutch Jews better than he did the others” (8). Annie has not yet been exposed to the things Hitler has been doing to the Dutch Jews and how they have been treated. This phrase is a symbol for Annie’s positive and hopeful personality. Another way symbolism is used in this novel is when Annie talks about how “Sometimes the tree spoke to everyone. When the food was going to be rationed, it did” (11). Here, Annie is informing the readers about a tree that the news gets posted on. The tree is a symbol for the situations that Jews were put through, and the conflict the Jews had with them. As a result, the author uses symbolism to help express Annie’s views on the new conditions she was being exposed

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