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The Little Match Girl

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The Little Match Girl
THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL

-Hans Christian Andersen-

Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) is a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children’s stories. Although during his lifetime he was acclaimed for having delighted children worldwide, his stories were always meant for adults as well. His poetry and stories have been translated into more than 150 languages. They have inspired motion pictures, plays, ballets and animated films.

However, fairy tales take the most important role in his writing career. Andersen used the colloquial style that disguises the sophisticated moral teachings in his fairy tales. Therefore, his tales became the favorite ones of both children and adults. Some of the most famous tales of Andersen are “The Little Mermaid”, “The Ugly Duckling” and “The Little Match Girl”, etc. Especially, “The Little Match Girl” which is famous for its humane quality has shaken the hearts of millions of readers in the world.

The story is firstly published in 1845. This one begins with a little girl who appears to be alone and very cold at New Year’s Eve. She is a poor girl who tries to sell matches at the cold night. She doesn’t come back home because she is very afraid of her father who let her out to sell matches. After finding a place between two houses’ wall, the poor girl starts to light matches to warm herself. When matches are burning, she can see many things which make her very happy. Such as: a Christmas tree, a holiday feast, a shooting star, etc. Then, the little girl sees a vision of her grandmother, the only person to have treated her with love and kindness. Therefore, she lights other matches to keep her grandmother stay nearby as long as she can. Finally, she can go together with her grandmother to the heaven. The next morning, people find her dead on the snow but there is still the smile on her red cheek.

In the story, there are two significant literature elements are character and



References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Christian_Andersen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Match_Girl http://www.online-literature.com/hans_christian_andersen/981/

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