"The Little Match Girl" is an example of source reading
The Little Match Girl is a famous fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, a famous Denmark fairy tale writer, published in 1846. It mainly tells the story of a little girl who sells matches and freezes to death on the street on Chinese New Year's Eve, where the rich family is happy and toasts together.
Our general understanding is that the little girl died, but with a smile on the corner of her mouth, the article through the beautiful fantasy of lighting a match, in stark contrast to her real life of hunger and cold, the author Andersen through this fairy tale, expressed deep sympathy for the miserable plight of the poor people, and dissatisfaction with the society at that time, ruthlessly revealed the darkness and evil of capitalist society.
However, perhaps we have misunderstood it all along, and traditional Chinese teaching may have an unshirkable responsibility. Today, here is an exploration of this world-famous fairy tale, let us interpret it in a different way, and perhaps gain a different understanding.
Exploring the Source Reading (1)
With the help of the Internet, Baidu search, to understand the author's relevant information:
Andersen was born into a poor shoemaker family in the city of Odense and had a poor childhood. His father was a shoemaker and his mother was a servant. In his early years, he studied at a charity school and worked as an apprentice. Influenced by his father and folk oral literature, he loved literature from an early age. When he was 11 years old, his father died of illness and his mother remarried. In pursuit of art, he moved to the capital Copenhagen alone at the age of 14. After 8 years of struggle, he finally showed his talent in the poetry drama "Alfsol". As a result, he was admitted to the Slughersey Grammar School and the Helsinou School for free by the Royal Theatre of Art. It lasted 5 years.
In 1828, Hans Christian Andersen entered the University of Copenhagen. After graduation, he never had a job, and he mainly relied on manuscript fees to make a living.
In 1838, he received a writer's bonus, a state grant of 200 yuan a year for non-public service. Hans Christian Andersen's literary career began in 1822 when he wrote plays. After entering university, his creative work became more and more mature. He has published travelogues and comedies, poetry collections and poetry plays.
In 1833, he published the novel The Improvisational Poet, which won him international fame and is his masterpiece of adult literature. His book Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales has been translated into more than 150 languages and distributed and published around the world.
Exploring the Source Reading (2)
With the help of a web search, we can also look up Andersen's personal experience:
Hans Christian Andersen was a devout Christian. He famously prayed: "God, please let every word of my pen praise you!"
There was an anecdote from his childhood. Hans Christian Andersen, who was a poor boy at the time, went to someone else's field to gather ears of wheat, and was chased and beaten by a notoriously irascible butler, who cried out when the stick was about to fall: "Do you dare to beat me in the face of God?" As a result, the butler not only did not beat him, but also rewarded Andersen. We can guess at the impact of this small incident on Andersen's growth and outlook on life. Hans Christian Andersen's path to success was arduous and he was despised and condemned by others, but he believed that God had planted a good conscience in every human being.
In the first paragraph of Hans Christian Andersen's autobiography, he tells the reader: "My life has been both fortunate and bumpy, and it is a beautiful story in itself...... The history of my life will show the world that there is a dear God who guides all things to fulfill their good wishes. ”
At the age of fourteen, when the poor, lonely boy first went out into the world from his hometown of Odense, he knelt down in prayer and begged God to help and guide him properly. Later he did get it.
When he first came to Copenhagen to survive, he met many noble friends who were noble and kind-hearted and willing to help him, and some even sponsored him to go to university. He said, "God always helps us when we are in trouble!" I have a blessed star, which is God. ”
He first came to the Denmark literary scene by writing poetry. In any one era, poetry cannot feed the author. Fortunately, with the help of caring friends in the upper class, Andersen received many non-official allowances from the king, which gave him the opportunity to travel to Europe, Asia Minor, Africa and other places without having to travel for a living.
Through his appreciation of the beautiful landscapes of the nations, Andersen marveled at God's loving creation. During his travels in Turkey, he said: "I did feel a devotion from the heart when I set foot in this area, just as I did when I entered the old church of St. Cru in Odense. I think of the sacrificial Christ of this world...... The sermons given to me by some of the countries along the coast of Asia are perhaps more memorable than the sermons of any church."
When he made his third trip to Rome and saw those beautiful sights, he wrote with emotion: "I am truly blessed and joyful, and God has given me more than many others; And I don't know how much more than he has given to others! Even in moments of great happiness I feel, as if I felt the deepest sorrows, I felt that the only one I could trust was God. My first impression of God was worship, and I can't find any other words to describe it. ”
Most of his life of travel has made beautiful fairy tales, most of which he wrote during his travels in various countries. This is why his fairy tales are often filled with a deep human love for nature.
In his heart, love is the only way to overcome suffering and death.
Andersen was weak and kind. He believed in a fully "God of love." Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales are more likely to be based on the New Testament than from the Old Testament. In his works, as in life, in the face of the suffering and misfortune of the world, Andersen did not choose hatred, violence and resistance, but only drew love and hope from his faith, as one of his poems said, "You don't understand the fiercest struggle in the world but only know love."
Exploring the Source Reading (3)
There is never despair in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales; It is often sentimental, but it is a sentimentality of hope. This hope gives his work a comforting power that transcends time and space. In his autobiography, Hans Christian Andersen said, "I am full of love, both to God and to all people!" And he believes that his life proves that "there is a dear and lovely God who guides him to perfection", which is fully reflected in his fairy tales.
His fairy tales are divided into three periods: early, middle and late:
Most of the early fairy tales were full of beautiful fantasies and optimistic spirits, reflecting the characteristics of combining realism and romanticism. Representative works include "Lighterbox", "Little Ida's Flowers", "Thumbelina", "Daughter of the Sea", "Wild Swan", "Ugly Duckling" and "The Emperor's New Clothes".
In the middle of the fairy tale, the fantasy component is weakened, and the reality component is relatively enhanced. In the whipping of ugliness and praise of goodness, it shows the persistent pursuit of a better life, and also reveals the melancholy of lack of confidence. His representative works include "The Little Match Girl", "The Snow Queen", "Shadow", "A Drop of Water", "Mother's Story" and "The Puppet Showman".
Late fairy tales are more realistic than those of the middle period, focusing on depicting the tragic fate of the people at the bottom, exposing the coldness, darkness and injustice of social life. The tone of the work is somber. Representative works include "A Dream Under the Willow Tree", "She's a Waste", "The Bachelor's Nightcap" and "Lucky Belle".
Exploring the Source Reading (4)
Baidu search about the motivation for the creation of "The Little Match Girl", we can know that this article was published in 1846, which belongs to the fairy tale of Hans Christian Andersen's middle period, and its theme naturally expresses more "persistent pursuit of a better life".
Andersen travels abroad and receives a letter from a friend on the way, asking him to write a story based on the picture he sent in the letter. One of the pictures shows a beautiful little girl with long golden hair tied up in curls and draped over her shoulders. She had a lot of matches in her hand, and her pitiful eyes widened as if she were thinking about something.
Andersen looked at this picture and couldn't help but think of his own background: he was born into a poor family, and when his father died when he was 11 years old, his mother remarried, and he had to live with his grandmother. Every evening, he looked forward to the return of his begging grandmother. As soon as the kind grandmother came home, she took him in her arms, brought him warmth, and relieved his hunger...... Thinking of these, Andersen wrote the poignant and moving fairy tale "The Little Match Girl" with his own personal experience and his extraordinary imagination.
Regarding the motivation for creation, another version can be found on the Internet:
In October 1845, Andersen visited Italy again. As Christmas approached, Glesston's friends repeatedly invited Andersen to spend Christmas there. Andersen happily got into the carriage to Glouston. In Glouston, he saw a banner reading "Welcome to Mr. Hans Christian Andersen" on the side of the road, and the bookstore was filled with fairy tales he had written. Hans Christian Andersen's carriage slowly moves through the streets of Gloston, and he wants to get a taste of the Christmas atmosphere in the city. However, at the end of the bustling street, he saw a middle-aged woman with a basket on her arm and a thin baby on her back, begging weakly. Not far away, a little girl, only about five years old, was selling matches, and her hands were frozen. However, there were not many people passing by, and the blonde girl did not sell a single match. When Hans Christian Andersen returned, he wrote "The Little Match Girl".
One thing is for sure, Denmark was still under the rule of the feudal dynasty, and many poor children lived in the same poverty as Andersen's childhood and the little girl in the picture. This fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen is both a realistic depiction of the miserable life of the poor and full of fantasies about a better life.
Because the author comes from a poor background, she has a deep feeling for the phenomenon of inequality between the rich and the poor in society: on the one hand, she is hungry and cold, without joy, and is bullied by others - the carriage is rampant, and the boy snatches her slippers; On the other side, "every window is lit up, and the smell of roast goose wafts through the street", and through the glass doors of the wealthy merchants, you can see how big and beautiful the Christmas tree is. The whole work is full of the author's deep sympathy for the unfortunate poor and his grievances about the society of inequality between the rich and the poor.
But in that era, the author could not find a way out of misfortune and could only look at the world with sad eyes, believing that God was the embodiment of truth, goodness, and beauty, and could lead people to happiness. The author writes: "The grandmother picked up the little girl and held her in her arms. The two of them flew away in light and joy, higher and higher, to a place where there was no cold, no hunger, and no pain. (When the fairy tale was selected as a textbook in 1961, it was followed by the following sentence: "They are with God.") ”）
In his mind, God is the one who blesses people with love, is kind and kind, like a father who loves mankind deeply. This belief is deeply rooted in his soul and has had a great impact on his life and creation. In Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, the Lord's Prayer, hymns and other unique words of Christianity have an amazing repetition rate, and some works even directly excerpt Bible verses, which have a strong Christian consciousness and atmosphere, expressing Andersen's religious feelings and religious understanding. Therefore, it should be correct to interpret Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales from the perspective of faith and religion.
Exploring the Source Reading (5)
Through Internet searching, you can also read the article "What You Don't Know About Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales", written online to commemorate the 211th birthday of the fairy tale giant Hans Christian Andersen, here is an excerpt of some of the text:
"I was amazed to find that most of Andersen's fairy tales were originally written for adults, and he guided and helped people to seek God and rely on God in the form of fairy tales in order to live a good life on earth."
"In these fairy tales, there are almost no fantasy scenes that boys like, and there is no happy ending where girls like princesses marry a prince and live a happy life, but more scenes are different corners of nature that are the most real human life, and the characters at the end of the story all end up dying and resting in the kingdom of God."
"The knowledge that God has endowed mankind with immortal souls, and the beautiful yearning for the heavenly world after death, allows mankind to overcome suffering and overcome death."
"Love" is the only way that can lead human beings to live a good life in the world that is "better than suffering and more than death". This is the truth of life that Hans Christian Andersen tells us in most of his fairy tales.
"God is the real protagonist behind fairy tales."
"Actually, God is the real protagonist behind Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales."
"He has compassion on the poor, and helps the weak, and chastifies the wicked, and praises the good; He humbled the pride, and exalted the humble; He ascended to heaven and descended into the abyss; He is in charge of clouds and mist, and he is considerate of insects and birds; He makes the fool accessible and the wise empowered. ”
In his fairy tale "What the Whole Family Says", he said:
'Life is a beautiful fairy tale world, and only God can give us this fairy tale world. Moreover, the fairy tales he gave us will never disappear. ’”
"God exalted this poor man, who humbly relied on him, and endowed him with incomparably noble poetic talents, and also made his beautiful fairy tales loved by people all over the world, and his name became a household name. His trust in God cultivated his beautiful faith character of looking up to God in poverty and praising God's gratitude, trust, and joy in abundance, and also fulfilled God's good wish for him - through his fairy tales, he let mankind see that God is the master of human beings and all things in nature, and that human beings should live in fear and rely on God to live their lives in the world. ”
"His life is like a magical fairy tale, led by God through a wonderful fantasy. As he realized during his travels in the south of France – 'My whole life, both the bright days and the dark days, has turned out to be good.' It was as if it was on a fixed course to some well-known location—I was at the helm, I had chosen my own path, and God was in charge of the storms and the seas. He can point in different directions, and whatever may happen, it's good for me. This belief is firmly rooted in my heart and makes me happy. ’”
Hans Christian Andersen humbly attributes his blessed life to God when he concludes his autobiography by saying, "What I have experienced so far in my life now unfolds before me like a rich, beautiful painting, inspiring my faith; It even convinced me that good things are born out of misfortune and happiness is born out of pain. As we move towards God, the bitterness and pain disappear, leaving behind a beautiful landscape, which people see as a rainbow in a gloomy sky; The history of my life will be the best commentary on all my works......"
"Every word he writes is a prayer of praise to God."
Exploring the Source Reading (6)
With the help of Internet search, you can also enjoy the famous writer Liang Xiaosheng's "Who <卖火柴的小女孩>is it for", here is an excerpt of some of the text:
"The Little Match Girl is written for little girls who don't have to huddle in the snow on New Year's Eve, freezing on street corners and shouting matches in a trembling voice. The basic situation is almost written for the little girls of the families who are not very poor, and even the rich and powerful. Often, the little girls of these families lie on soft beds or sit by the warm fire at night and listen to their parents or maids or governesses read to them "The Little Match Girl". The tears in their eyes mean that there will be one more compassionate and kind mother in the world. Mothers, on the other hand, are the best at imparting their compassion and kindness in the hearts of their children—generation after generation; A hundred years later, a country has a cultural gene...... This is the reason why all mankind is grateful to Andersen. ”
"When culture loses its conscience and collectives turn their backs on the classes and people they deserve to be sympathized with and pretend not to see it, then a country turns its back on the purpose of harmony."
"And the conscience of suppressing culture is the conscience of suppressing the bottom line of the whole society."
"And the part of the population that does not even gain cultural sympathy is the most unfortunate of the people."
"I see the world with my eyes, and the cultural significance of the cultures of economically developed countries has been reflected in two particularly important aspects: enlightening the poor and educating the rich; Thus, the culture of the country. ”
Exploring the Source of Reading (7)
In addition, with the help of Internet search, you can read "Rereading Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales" by Mr. Pan Zhichang, director of the Institute of International Media Research of Nanjing University, professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Journalism and Communication of Nanjing University, and founder of Life Aesthetics.
"The most familiar is because "The Little Match Girl" is really known and known to everyone in China; Although the story itself has not changed, in the eyes of Chinese readers, it has been "transformed" with "Chinese characteristics", so "The Little Match Girl" has become the Denmark version of the story of "Zhumen wine and meat smells, and there are frozen bones on the road", becoming a "statement" of the oppressed class, and a powerful evidence to indict the evil of capitalism.
However, in China, how many people can notice: Andersen is not the Dugong Ministry (Fu) of Denmark, just as the Dugong Department (Fu) is not the Hans Christian Andersen of China?
'There is no greater mourning than the death of the heart'. If there is no happiness that represents a positive attitude and a healthy spirit, then it is the real 'poverty', and it is really the great sorrow and great misfortune of life.
So, how to be a happy poor person?
This is the important warning that Hans Christian Andersen wants to give to future generations in "The Little Match Girl".
The little match girl was happy, and moreover, she died of happiness.
Hans Christian Andersen, however, devotes two-thirds of this precious space to the five matches lit by the little match girl. And that's exactly where Andersen's success lies. So, why? In the face of this question, I should say that the answers I have seen are unsatisfactory. Hans Christian Andersen seems to have guessed this as well? So he wrote in "The Little Match Girl": 'She wanted to warm herself up,' people said. No one knows: what beautiful things she once saw, how glorious she was to walk with her grandmother to the happiness of the New Year.
Yes, a problem that cannot be ignored is that the little match girl is happy, and moreover, she also dies of happiness.
Why is this happening? If I were to choose only one noun to answer, I would say, gratitude.
The little match girl was poor, but she still had her grandmother, and matches, and a warm stove in the light of the fire, a beautiful roast goose, and a happy Christmas tree...... What's more, she still has God. You know, she is "with God", and all this may be very little for others, but for her, it is already a lot.
And because of this, she is still happy.
I think that's why the author repeatedly emphasizes that the little girl dies "with a smile on her lips"?
Exploring the Source Reading (8)
Hans Christian Andersen's belief in God is reflected in his writings. Whenever he was distressed about the injustice he had suffered, he appealed to God, and he also appealed to God when he saw the suffering and sin of the world. At the sad end of "The Ice Maiden," he says, "God has always the best plan for us," though he laments that "God never tells us reasons like he tells Barbed in a dream." Even so, God is still his only and inevitable sustenance.
In "Mother's Story", in order to take back the child from death, the mother is willing to pierce her chest and shed blood, and she is willing to lose her eyes and hair, and she is bent on recovering her child and taking possession of her child; In the end, inspired by death, she realized that God was the master of life, and she was only the steward of her children. God's arrangement for every child is the most beautiful, so to love a child is to recognize God's sovereignty over the child and give the child to God. Otherwise, what she is praying for may be that the child will suffer on earth.
In addition, Hans Christian Andersen's serious fairy tales are about repentance and salvation. For example, "The Red Shoes", "Mother's Story", "Heavenly Garden", "Jewish Woman" and "The Girl Who Stepped on Bread" have a strong religious atmosphere, and the whole story is the history of the struggle of the protagonist's soul, about love, about sin, and about faith.
In Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, we return to the purity and beauty of childhood. This is not an escape from suffering, but a transcendence of suffering. Even if it is an aesthetic transcendence, for our modern people in a hurry, who dares to say that there is no need to "stop and smell the roses?" ”
When Andersen was fifty years old, the Denmark Monthly published an article by Mr. Grimer · Thomson commenting on Andersen, in which he wrote:
"Fairy tales retain a light-hearted courtroom that judges the phantom and the substance, the shell and the core. In the fairy tale, there are two rivers flowing through it: one is the satirical Ming River, which mocks things big and small, and deals with people of high and low ranks; The other is a deep river that honestly makes everything its place. This is true Christian humor! ”
In that dark river, there is the Christian faith. Of course, Hans Christian Andersen's ideas, buried between the lines, cannot become the reality of his time, but they transcend history and point to the future. This is the value of Hans Christian Andersen's ability as an excellent writer who surpasses his contemporaries. He also became a "lucky man" as he sang about the ideals...... The unpaid chief engineer who built the bridge between God and the world. ”
In the same way, the well-known fairy tale "The Daughter of the Sea" is not a simple story of superficial coaxing children, Andersen tried to tell the world with this story:
Humans are the noblest animals created by God, and only humans have immortal souls, while animals and other creatures have no souls. The human soul was given to mankind by God when he first created him, and after physical death, the soul will eventually ascend to God's heavenly kingdom. The little mermaid longs for more than just human love, what she desires most is to have an immortal soul like a human being.
This is the original intention of the author Hans Christian Andersen to create this fairy tale.
The author does not just praise the "greatness of love" as we think, nor only praises a kind of love with a "self-sacrificing spirit", but he praises the value and spirit of life.
Exploring the Source Reading (9)
With the help of Internet search, I read the blog post "Hans Christian Andersen: God Sent Me Another Mission", the article believes that our misreading of "The Little Match Girl" is caused by "the view of literature is constrained by the reflection model and the one-sided emphasis on the cognitive function of literature".
"From the history of European and American literature, we can see that reflection theory is a trend of thought that flourished in the nineteenth century, and its typical feature is to advocate literature to reflect social life, and use the method of 'shaping typical characters in typical environments' to reflect society. In this way, literature has become a special social ideology, and the difference between literature and history and philosophy is only that literature expresses its understanding of society through figurative rather than abstract means. In this way, the world of literature is an extension of the real world, and literature becomes a tool for understanding reality and thus guiding practice. ”
This view of literature helps to understand that a writer like Balzac, who aspires to be the 'secretary' of France society, is a bit square and out of place for those who are not very interested in politics and society. For example, Hans Christian Andersen, the first artist to win world fame for Northern Europe, made it clear in his autobiography that he was not interested in politics, that he felt that there was no need to participate in such things, and even thought that politics was a disaster, and that 'God had sent me a different mission'. What is this 'other mission'? For Andersen, it is to construct an art world that is completely different from the real world, which is a world of beauty, a fictional world, and is not a reflection of the real world in the first place. Of course, there is no art detached from reality; But why do we have to look for a correspondence between art and reality? Not everyone reads because they are interested in reality. ”
This is the key to interpreting Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, in fact, this work is not mainly about the tragedy of the little girl, but about the main part of the little girl's "what a beautiful thing she once saw", "how happy she was with her grandmother, and how happy she was to go to the happiness of the New Year". Two-thirds of the fairy tale is about this 'beauty' and 'happiness'—what the little girl sees when she polishes the four matches and the last one. Polishing the first match made her see the brass stove (warm, bright); Polishing the second match made her see the bright room and the fragrant roast goose (transparent, delicate, wonderful); Polishing the third match is the beautiful Christmas tree (big, beautiful); Polishing the fourth match, 'In this light the old grandmother appeared. She seemed so bright, so gentle, so kind.' So the little girl polished the whole bunch of matches that were left—'and the matches shone brighter than daylight.' Grandmother has never looked so beautiful and tall as she is now. She picked up the little girl and took her into her arms. The two of them flew away in light and joy, higher and higher, to a place where there was neither cold, nor hunger, nor sorrow—they were with God.'"
"You see, Andersen used so many adjectives to describe the beauty that the little girl saw in her own way. It is in this 'reality' that the little girl gets rid of the suffering of reality and finds comfort and satisfaction. ”
In the same way, Andersen does not focus on the general miserable situation of the little match girl, but writes that when the cold and suffering come, the little girl also uses her true fantasy to tenaciously express her desire for truth, goodness, beauty, and love as a child. This fantasy is a fantasy for us, but it is a living belief for the little girl. In the face of suffering, Andersen was reluctant to solve it on a social level in a revolutionary way, but emphasized a spiritual way to soothe it in a religious way. ”
"The United States art critic Fang Long said: 'The spark of God was conceived in the heart of this silent little boy, as irresistible as a storm. Whoever God touched, no matter how rude and how great the difficulties he encountered, he could still realize his dreams. ’”
This is the secret of Hans Christian Andersen's suffering and sublimation of harm: he has persistent beliefs. ”
"This belief convinced Andersen that his life was lucky, and when he looked at his life with this belief, he found that he was indeed lucky."
Exploring the Source Reading (10)
We recommend reading Hans Christian Andersen's "Dream Under the Willows" written in 1853, which is similar to the ending idea of "The Little Match Girl".
At the end of "The Little Match Girl":
On New Year's morning, the snow stopped, the wind lessened, and the sun rose and shone the earth golden. Adults came out into the streets, and everyone congratulated them on a happy new year. The children dressed in new clothes and had a snowball fight happily.
At this time, one saw a little girl freezing to death in the corner, her face shining and her mouth smiling. There were matchsticks scattered all over the ground, and there was a match in her little hand.
At the end of "Dream Under the Willows":
They knelt down before the altar. Johnny bowed her head to Knuder; Cold tears rolled out of her eyes. It was the ice in her heart—his passionate love melted it; It was now dripping onto his burning face. So he woke up. He turned out to be sitting under an exotic old willow tree on a harsh winter evening. A hailstorm was coming down from the clouds and hitting him in the face.
"This is the sweetest moment of my life!" "And it's a dream!" he said. God, let me dream again! ”
So he closed his eyes again, and fell asleep, and began to dream.
At dawn, there was a snowfall. Snowflakes rolled up to his feet, and he fell asleep. The villagers went to the church to worship and found a craftsman sitting on the side of the road. He was already dead, frozen to death under this willow tree.
On the basis of exploring the source, students read the original text of "The Little Match Girl" again, and naturally have a better understanding of some contents:
The little girl lit matches five times, and in the mirage she saw the warm stove, the fragrant roast goose, the beautiful Christmas tree, and the loving grandmother, until she flew away with her. The author uses many beautiful words in his descriptions of these visions, such as the freshly lit match makes the little girl feel "how beautiful and warm", the Christmas tree is also "so beautiful", and the grandmother is "so gentle and kind".
What a consolation for the cold and hungry little girl to see these visions through the light of matches! Hans Christian Andersen, who believed in God all his life, saw the tragic fate of many children in Denmark society at that time, and when he was also struggling in poverty, when he felt powerless to change all these social realities, the only thing he could do was to let them transcend suffering and comfort them through words, "God is with them", which is Andersen's ideal sustenance under helplessness.
In "The Little Match Girl", Hans Christian Andersen does not focus on the whipping of the cold society, but writes about a child's desire for a better life. The author's use of words to satisfy such children plays a good role in "soul comfort" and expresses the author's inner good wishes, which is consistent with Andersen's experience and beliefs. He is at the bottom of life, he has always been funded by well-wishers, and his heart is more warm than resentful, more love than hate. The Christian fraternity allowed his soul to find a home, and he prayed with fraternity to the unfortunate people in the world to spend their miserable lives in a transcendent way.
In this sense, the interpretation of "The Little Match Girl" from a religious perspective is most in line with the author's original intention, which is "the mission that God has given him". In this regard, Liang Xiaosheng believes that it is a kind of "cultural conscience", a kind of humanitarian care, which is not contradictory; However, some professors interpret it as "happy poor people", a kind of "gratitude" and "happy gratitude", which may be too frivolous, and such a misinterpretation may not respect the author's original intention.
At the end of "The Little Match Girl", it is written that the little girl and her grandmother "both of them flew in light and joy", "they flew higher and higher, and flew to heaven without cold and hunger, to be with God", "people saw a little girl freezing to death in the corner, with a bright face and a smile on her lips. There were matchsticks scattered all over her, and there was a match in her little hand. Such an ending is of course sad and sad, but the author's original intention in writing is not to exaggerate this pathos, but to express: what is worthy of our comfort is that this little girl felt beautiful before she was frozen to death, and she died in peace and warmth. This is in line with Christian doctrine and in the spirit of humanism.
We used to interpret this passage as a kind of irony, because God did not exist, and there could not have been cold, hunger and pain in that era, so the little girl died in agony. This is the far-fetched wishful thinking of the "atheists".
Let's take a look at "Dream Under the Willow Tree", which is a poignant love story, the girl grows up to empathize with the love, and the boy still clings to his childhood love, and finally he travels thousands of miles to find his dear other half, and freezes to death under the willow tree in a foreign land like the willow tree in his hometown where he left his love vows.
This fairy tale should have the shadow of Hans Christian Andersen himself, who has never been married all his life, who is inferior to his own poverty and ugliness, and has long lost faith in love. At the end of "A Dream Under the Willows", before the young man Crud froze to death, he dreamed that he and his beloved girl, Johnny, had a positive love and walked to church together. The ending has a strong tragic overtone, but Andersen soothes his soul well in his own way, which cannot be said to be the spirit of Ah Q or the so-called "obscenity", but an expression of good wishes in the heart.
"A Dream Under the Willows" can see the author's heart, and "The Little Match Girl" was created slightly earlier than "A Dream Under the Willows", and it is easier to understand the author's heart by reading "The Little Match Girl" with this understanding. Therefore, it is more appropriate to say that he is not China's "Du Gong Ministry", but China's magic pen Ma Liang.
A very important point of the value and function of literature is to soothe people's souls and imperceptibly play its humanitarian enlightenment and education function. Therefore, with the help of this fairy tale, Andersen wanted to convey to the disadvantaged with his faith, with the power of God's love that he felt, to comfort them, to convey warmth, beauty and love to them, and to express his religious fraternity.
The author's practice of traceable reading began as early as 2015, and in 2017 began to promote the concept of traceability in various places, including "The Little Match Girl" traceable reading, and in 2023, when the book "Language Exploration and Source Learning" is planned to be published, it will be officially changed to "Exploration Reading". When reorganizing Andersen's "The Little Match Girl", I happened to see the headline tweet of the "Today's Headlines" platform called "East and West Children's Education" "After reading the uncut version of Andersen's fairy tales, I knew how fake the mermaid and ugly duckling the baby read", which introduced several classic fairy tales of Andersen that have been deleted but are particularly shocking.
The hen asks (the ugly duckling), "Can you lay eggs?" ”
"Can't!"
"Then please don't give your opinion!"
The tomcat said, "Can you arch your back, make a meow, and burst into sparks?" ”
"Can't!"
"Then, when a smart person is speaking, you have no need to express your opinion!"
……
"I think I'd better go out into the world." The ugly duckling said.
"I read this paragraph to love the ugly duckling. In the face of doubts and ridicule from other animals, the ugly duckling did not change itself easily, but chose to go to the wider world, which I think is the great thing about it. ”
Yes, the most touching thing about the original text of "The Ugly Duckling" is not that it "changes" into a swan, but that it takes several large paragraphs to tell how the ugly duckling remains independent in a lonely environment and is not assimilated.
If you only watch the abridged version, you will feel that "Daughter of the Sea" is a story of a mermaid pursuing love. Saving the Prince, both in the cut version and in the animated version, is written as the Little Mermaid's yearning for love.
In fact, the Little Mermaid did not have the determination to go to land because of the prince, what did she yearn for? Let's read the original text:
"She felt that their (human) world was much bigger than hers. Indeed, they were able to sail on the sea, to climb the towering mountains, and at the same time their land, with its forests and fields, stretched out so far that she could not see it. ”
She began to yearn for the human world out of a strong sense of curiosity and adventure, but these were not enough for the Little Mermaid to take the step of turning into a human being.
Here comes the point, in the original text, her grandmother told her:
"We can live to be 300 years old, but when we end our lives, we become foam on water. ..... We are like the green seaweed, once we cut it, we will never be green again. ”
"On the contrary, human beings have a soul that lives forever, even if the body turns to dust, it is still alive. It rises into the clear sky and all the way up to the shining stars! Just as we ascend to the surface of the water and see the earthly world, they ascend to places that are mysterious, gorgeous, and we will never see them. ”
It turns out that what The Little Mermaid thinks about day and night is not about the prince, nor about love, but about the deeper thoughts that Hans Christian Andersen gave her, an ultimate exploration of the proposition of life!
Whether it's paying the price of losing her voice, turning her tail into legs, or finding the Prince, it's just a way for the Little Mermaid to hope for an "immortal soul".
There is also the end of the story, and many of the deleted versions are that the Little Mermaid looks at the prince affectionately, and then throws herself into the sea and turns into foam, giving people a feeling of love but not being able to sacrifice for love.
In fact, the original text has a ending of more than 500 words.
The second sentence at the end subverts everyone's cognition,
“…… However, The Little Mermaid did not feel dead. ”
Not only did the Little Mermaid not turn into foam, but after detachment, she went to Heaven and became the daughter of Heaven.
At the end of the original text, the most shocking sentence for the author is this sentence:
"Through your own efforts, in three hundred years, you will create an immortal soul for yourself."
It means that, in Andersen's eyes, The Little Mermaid can obtain eternal existence without relying on external forces, which means that women do not need to rely on love to open up their own vast world.
Seeing this, I believe you also feel that if a child only reads the abridged version, "The Daughter of the Sea" is a mediocre love story, and only after reading the uncut version will they give birth to these profound thoughts about "life and death, soul, and self".
Baidu search "The Little Match Girl", you can see the political label attached to this fairy tale:
“…… The author superimposes the beautiful visions of the little girl with the cold reality she faces, and mercilessly lashes out at the sinful capitalist society. ”
"The Little Match Girl is a famous fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, a Denmark writer of the mid-nineteenth century. The story depicts the pages of the reality of cold cheese intertwined with the wonderful fantasies of the girl at that time. The article uses contrasting artistic techniques to tell the story of a little match girl who freezes to death on the street on New Year's Eve, exposing the darkness of capitalist society. The contrast between light and dark, warmth and brutality, leads the whole work into a heartbreaking and miserable situation. ”
"The reason why the little match girl sees all kinds of illusions is, from the perspective of human physiology, that the child's body is extremely weak and his consciousness is blurred, which will produce illusions. It's the same as the illusion of a pond in front of the eyes of a man who is extremely thirsty in the desert. In addition, from the psychological analysis of the little match girl, the reason why she has those illusions is because they are not available in real life, but she is very eager to get them. She can only be obtained in the unreal, further highlighting the pity of the little girl, the stark contrast between reality and unreality, expressing the author's deep sympathy for the tragic plight of the poor people, and dissatisfaction with the society at that time. ”
Such an interpretation is completely based on our self-righteous ideology and from a political point of view, and does not conform to the author's original intention.
Andersen's life is as he said, "I'm not interested in politics", but ironically, we have to interpret his work from a political perspective, giving the theme of this fairy tale that exudes human brilliance so political. I don't think Andersen would have been happy if he had known.
"The Little Match Girl" Exploration Reading Mind Map Example
About the Originator of Language Exploration Reading:
Yao Danhua, born in Shanghai in 1970, pen name Zhiyin Qiusheng, educational explorer and education practitioner, independent writer, pioneer of language learning traceability method, Taoist culture communicator, discovered the theoretical basis of positive psychology in United States is actually the first person to find Taoist concepts.
For many years, he has won the honorary titles of Outstanding Instructor of Shanghai Classical Poetry Writing Competition, Outstanding Instructor of Shanghai Ancient Poetry Reading Competition, and Outstanding Instructor of Shanghai Middle School Students' Composition Competition. The cover character of the front page of the journal "Language World", the journal of the Chinese Chinese Newspaper Association, introduced the teaching record of "Yugong Moving Mountains" on the whole page.
National Academic Seminar on "Integrating Traditional Culture into Chinese Curriculum", National Seminar on Righteous Language, National Seminar on Improving Classroom Wisdom Teaching Ability in Primary and Secondary Schools, "Four Places" Language Seminar, "Tracing the Origin of Reading Henan Xiangcheng Promotion Activities", "Tracing the Origin of Reading" Academic Report in Shenzhen and Dongguan, Hanzhong "Tracing the Footprints of Masters and Exploring the Source of Reading" National Training Program Lecture, "Life is Wonderful because of Encounters with Masters" Nanjing Jianye Middle School Reading Guided Reading Interactive Activities, Teacher training of Yunnan Kunming Experimental School (Tianjiao Campus) affiliated to Sichuan Normal University, "The 13th Annual Conference of the Research Center for Guided Reading and Writing of the Chinese Literature Research Association and the 23rd Annual Conference of Henan Province", and the special guest of the "100 people and 1000 fields" famous teachers of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education went to Pinghu City to teach.
One of the special guests and keynote speakers of many Chinese teaching activities such as the "Fourth Chinese Curriculum Expo of Henan Province", "Educator Forum", "Menglong Poetry" Poetry Education Micro Forum, "Shanghai Taoliyuan School Teaching Seminar Micro Lecture", Nanjing 13th Middle School Language Seminar, Dongguan Songshan Lake Experimental School Language Seminar, Henan Yucheng Chunlai School Symposium Speaker, National Traceability Guided Reading Teaching Demonstration Course "For Learning", "Chen Taiqiu and Friends Period" and "Back".
"Taizhou, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Jiaxing" five languages special seminar on ancient poetry special guest judge, corporate culture course "Classical Poetry and the Realm of Life", community public welfare lecture "Tracing the Origin of Reading Family Promotion", large-scale public welfare lecture "We learn Chinese like this today", "junior high school Chinese learning guidance", "standing at the height of comprehensive language literacy research examination" guest speaker.