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Question
The Little Match Girl can be viewed as a work of opposites. Justify.
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Solution
Little Match Girl can be viewed as a work of opposites can be analysed as a work of opposites. Andersen plays with the interaction between violence and love, poverty and wealth, struggle and redemption, life and death. These constant relationships are displayed in such a manner that keeps us entertained during the reading process, and we are later left with a moral learning.
The author talks about segregation, religious faith and human relationships.Instead of getting love and care from her father, the girl only got blows for not selling matches. The girl sees only her old grandmother as the only loving relationship and views her, ‘bright and radiant, so mild, and with such an expression of love.’
The family situation of the little girl and her experiences daily show that parents of such poor children did not care if it was cold outside. They send their daughter out to sell matches anyway. The girl does not have the appropriate clothing to shelter herself from the winter cold. She is not capable of selling any matches and scared to return home because her father would beat her for her poor work. Instead of going back, the girl prefers to sit in the snow and imagine her grandmother’s face, full of tenderness and love. The reminder of her grandmother’s love helps her to keep warm and get through this painful moment, as passers-by remain oblivious to her suffering, ;just like her parents.
She is now dead in the cold winter, but with a smile on her face because she is with her grandmother and God. This can be seen as an allegory for Christian faith, in regards to the notion that good people go to heaven to enter heaven. This explains the fact that the little girl suffered during her lifetime which denotes a more significant sense of purpose to the girl’s struggle and the tale’s ending.
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