Essay on “Little Match Girl” and “The Red Shoes”

Mothers are the happiness of children. The death of a mother is like a burning flame to a child. The tales of the red shoes and the little match girl shows how miserable life can be without a mother. Little match girl in the tale, she faces a lot of hardship in her life. This ranges from the beating’s she gets from her father. This is intense until she goes to sleep in the cold and this is when the magic appears. In the tale of red shoes when Karen’s mother died. She did not even have shoes. She could collect the red cloth and take it to the tailor who could make shoes for her (Andersen, Hans Christian, 2013).

The theme of childhood is portrayed in the tales of the red shoes, the little match girl and the girl who trod on the loaf. We observe the childhood life of Angel, Karen, and the little match girl. The childhood life of the little match girl is very miserable. This is when she is forced to sell the matchsticks, and she is not allowed to come back home when they are not over. The author portrays to the audience how life can be miserable sometimes to the children. She stayed in the cold the whole night. This was when the magic began to happen. When she lights the matchstick after following the sizzling aroma from the door of the neighborhood. The magic could happen and stop as soon as the matchstick went off. The author portrays the theme of childhood to the audience through the series of events that the little match girl passes through.

In the tale of the red shoes, we see the child life of Karen from the time her mother dies. This is when a well-wisher picks her up after observing her from her mother’s funeral. This goes on until when the woman picks her up. She buys her a pair of red shoes though if she knew they were red, she could not have purchased them, in the first place. The childhood life Karen is portrayed until she meets an angel.

The author also portrays the childhood life of Angel who is not adequately taught by her parents. She goes to live with a wealthy family, and the life there continues to be miserable. Her parents want her to pay a visit every week. We see when she is given a loaf, she uses it to cross the river instead of taking it to her parents and she sinks in the process.

The children have used in the tapestry show the consequences of not respecting parents. Let’s take the scenario of Karen in the red shoes she is disobedience and evil in the process she is chopped of her legs after begging not to be chopped off her head as the angel demanded.

In the tale of the little girl who trod on the loaf shows the consequences of disobedience to the parents. When she chooses to trod on the loaf, she was given to take to her parents, and she eventually trod on it then she is sent to hell.

Children’s are used to show that repentance also is essential and one can be forgiven. Like the case of Karen in the red shoes, Karen asks for forgiveness, and she begins to attend the churches. And in the girl who trod on the loaf too is an indication that there is power in repentance as she was forgiven.

Parents in the tales are portrayed as very critically in the child development. In the tale of the girl who trod on the loaf is traded back to the parents. It means parents do not teach their children well in the way of life. The life of Angel becomes miserable living anywhere because of the lack of the teachings of the parents. Parents are portrayed as very important to a child. All these children pass the hardship due to lack of either one or both parents.

It is true that fairy tales develop some images that will enable children to heal through the process of psychological problems. The tales of the little match girl creates the images that help to heal the children through their problems psychologically. This is through the craft of ideas. Like the case of the little match girl, a mental picture is created on how she is whipped by her father when she returns home when she has not sold all the matchsticks. There is a psychological development through this tale I that any child passing through this can psychologically heal. This is because like in the case of the little match girl the end is always captivating. This means that any child reading the tale will have hopes that it will not last long and he or she will have a pleased ending.

In the tale of the red shoes, there is psychological development in that Karen had a problem I wearing a boot. She could even go ahead and take the red clothes and take them to a tailor to make shoes for her. In the end, she wears very shining shoes that even people admire. This is psychological development to the children reading in that they will find they lacked.

There is the theme of otherness. This is not self-love. In the tale of the girl who trod on the loaf shows the theme of otherness. The girl found the life miserable at home and the rich family took her. This means they don’t just take care of themselves but also some other people. Angel was given bread to take to her parents this means that then reach family cared.

In the tale of the red shoes, there is a theme of otherness. When the old woman saw Karen ion her mother’s funeral, she took her. This means she also cares for others. And she even went ahead and bought her red shining shoes. The group that is bothered is the low-income families. This is like Karen who is very poor, and the mother died, they the ones who need help.

There is a concept of abuse like in the case of the girl with the matchstick. She is abused by her birth father who continues to mistreat her. The girl cannot go home when she has not finished sailing the matchsticks. She even went ahead and slept in the cold.

The modern and the classical version of the tales have changed through the morals are still the same. This is the tale of the red shoes. Disney Company has told the story of the red shoes through animation. There is the difference as the classical one show how Karen starts to change a log the way to become a bad girl. But through Disney on how the girl is portrayed all along shows sympathy and how good Karen is.

In conclusion, all these tales have some common themes. This is like the red shoes and the little girl with the matchstick. The tales talk about the childhood life and all the hardship the children passed through. The mothers play a significant role in the development of a child. The tales show how they psychologically lead to the child development.

Work cited

Andersen, Hans Christian, and Willis Harwerth. The red shoes. Project Gutenberg, 1983

Andersen, Hans Christian. The little matches girl vol.3. Katrine agency, 2013

Woods, Peter. “Managing the primary teacher’s role. “Thinking Through primary practice (2013): 276

Dixon, Mike. “The red shoes-A legendary film, a legendary subject but does Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tale also fit on the stage? Mathew Bourne makes the sample of examples” TANZ 2(2017)8-14