Hotel Rwanda/Briar Rose

Audiences can view various texts to enhance their own knowledge of the discovery. Two examples of this are Briar Rose (1992), written by Jane Yolen and Hotel Rwanda (2002), directed by Terry George. The two composers have created insightful texts that display similar discoveries associated with human nature including human depravity and the strength of human spirit. The composers have achieved this through a number of techniques and the creation of a character and their self-discovery as the texts progress.
The composers created these texts to reveal the potential evil that humans can display, to the audience. The contexts of these texts both involve genocide although separated by half a century. Much of Hotel Rwanda is historically correct and even begins with radio excerpts from the time the genocide happened. The historical context of Briar Rose becomes the background of the novel, which is the Holocaust in WWII. Whilst Yolen and George depict genocides of the past, both texts are given a more seemingly human face. Briar Rose is entwined with a fairytale and Hotel Rwanda is centred around a love story.
The human depravity shown in Hotel Rwanda is appalling. Tutsis are constantly referred to as ‘cockroaches’ and the Hutu are also out to ‘exterminate those vermin’. This dialogue chosen by George demonstrates just how shocking the Rwandan genocide was, and demonstrates to the audience how the blatant dehumanisation of the Tutsis, by the Hutu, makes it so much easier for the Tutsis to be killed. As well as this George highlights the negligence of western society towards the Rwandans. After seeing horrifying footage of Tutsis being killed a reporter believes that ‘When people see this footage they will think ‘Oh my God this is horrible’ and then go on eating their dinners’. Audiences take this in and realise the truth of what he has said, and even though the Hutus are the ones being blamed for committing such atrocity, western society did not intervene as they...