The Brother's Journey into the Unknown

Transformations between human and animal are not uncommon in fairy tales. Very often the characters in these stories can harmlessly venture between both worlds. The brothers in the Seven Ravens stories are cursed into birds before returning to their human form, and Hans lives in a perpetual in-between state as a man/hedgehog hybrid. The difference between these tales and The Juniper Tree is that the brothers transformation is not between animal and human, it is between living and dead.

In many of the other stories characters are turned into animals only to return to their human forms and live what we can infer to be a very normal life. However, these characters are victims of curses, not murder. While they do transform physically, the reader can assume that they are still human in thought. For example, in Brother and Sister, the brother begs to go out and play through the hunt, just like a human child would. A natural fawn would likely shy away from any threats, while the brother engages in them. It is clear that his mental state has not changed, even though he is in the body of the fawn. It is not the same for the brother in The Juniper Tree.

One of the the key internal struggles of humankind is the struggle with the unknown of death. No one can really say what happens when one dies, and the awareness of this uncertainty is a mark of a true human. When the brother is killed, he is not immediately and magically transformed. He truly goes through a death stage. This stage and the knowledge of what will happen after one dies is what prevents him from being able to assume a complete human form again. He is neither animal nor human. He has been bestowed with knowledge entirely unavailable to all living things. He is set apart from all else because he has traveled to death and back.

Looking at this story as just a physical transformation would be a mistake. The bigger issue is not the brother's physical appearance, but the knowledge imparted to him through his trials. It is that knowledge that classifies him, not his outward appearance.