Reading Diary A: Hans Christian Anderson (Week 14)

Illustration in a collection of Anderson's Fairy tales

• The Princess and the Pea is a really interesting story, but it brings up some questions.  For example, why is it that sensitivity is the only way to tell if someone is a true princess?  That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.  I think it’s funny that the story ends by saying that it was a true story.
• I haven’t heard the story of the Emperor and the clothes before, but I was excited when I saw it in this unit.  I recently heard about it and I’ve been seeing and hearing it mentioned all over the place since then.  Now I finally get what it was all about!  Basically it is all about pride, and only a child is willing to be honest in spite of pride.
• “This is the black goblin’s fault, I am sure. Ah, well, if the little lady were only here with me in the boat, I should not care for any darkness.”
• So I suppose the tale of the Wicked Prince is about greed?  I’m surprised that God actually had any interaction.  I expected the prince to become ruined all on his own.  The fact that such a tiny gnat took down such a “mighty” prince is quite ironic.
• I didn’t realized that the story of the Little Match Girl was from Hans Christian Anderson.
• “Her father would certainly beat her”  Geez, that is intense.
• “ her grandmother had never appeared so large or so beautiful. She took the little girl in her arms, and they both flew upwards in brightness and joy far above the earth, where there was neither cold nor hunger nor pain, for they were with God.”  I’m not really sure how I feel about this.  I’m not really crazy about this story.  It’s so sad.

Hans Christian Anderson unit

Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by H. P. Paull (1872).