Thumbelina’s Teachings (The price of Beauty)
The 1835 literary fairy tale,Thumbelina, by Hans Christian Andersen, is one of those tales that teach you reality in a fairy tale-ly way... This is a cools story, have you ever read the original version? Basically the story goes like this:
An elderly nice lady always wanted to have a child of her own, but never did. So she went and talked to the witch... (So far the witches did nothing but make possible all the weird & unconventional wishes of the “heroes” and yet the witches are the ones with bad reputation)
So anyway, the witch gave her a child: Thumbelina. The little girl was the size of a thumb, but she was the most beautiful little girl anyone put eyes on, so the elderly nice lady didn’t mind the size.
Thumbelina was so pretty that when a toad that was passing by got charmed by her beauty and thought, "She will make a lovely wife for my son," so the mother toad kidnapped her so she (Thumbelina) would marry her ugly toad son. The toads put her on a water-lily leaf in the river so she wouldn’t runaway.
Fortunately, the fish in the river saw that something had to be wrong, ‘how can a beauty like her be with some ugly toad like that.’ So they ate the bottom of the leaf and let Thumbelina float away.
A white butterfly dude was flying by when he saw her gorgeousness so he agreed to tie his legs to the water-lily. The butterfly flew and pulled Thumbelina quickly down the stream.
Later Thumbelina was again kidnapped, this time by a disgusting May bug (the butterfly probably died because he was tied up to the leaf, floating down the river… where all those big fish that eat butterflies were swimming around)
The May bug, of course, wanted to marry her. All the jealous ladies May bugs started to murmur and convinced Thumbelina and the dude May bug that she was ugly. So dude May bug dumped her. Thumbelina was sad because she was so “ugly that not even a May bug would want her around”
Later, she agreed to marry a Rich blind mole, but it wasn’t for his money (or so she says). It was because he was blind and treated her nicely.
A bird made her come to her senses (that she could do better) and, together, ran away on the wedding day.
At the end, she finally met someone handsome enough. This time she was the one wanting to marry him. He was a ballerina dude, who liked to dance ballet in tidy pants with the flowers (Not all flowers were female flowers).
Well, we all know how THAT's going to end.
If you ask me, she got what she deserved. I mean, she never, no even once, thought about coming back and tell her mother she was ok? (Can you even imagine that poor elderly nice lady’s grief?) And what about taking advantage of the butterfly dude who most likely died? That though was the butterfly’s fault, but running away on the wedding day?
Moral of the story 1: Be aware! Beauty makes us do stupid things.
Moral of the Story 2: Beauty is not a blessing, it’s a curse
An elderly nice lady always wanted to have a child of her own, but never did. So she went and talked to the witch... (So far the witches did nothing but make possible all the weird & unconventional wishes of the “heroes” and yet the witches are the ones with bad reputation)
So anyway, the witch gave her a child: Thumbelina. The little girl was the size of a thumb, but she was the most beautiful little girl anyone put eyes on, so the elderly nice lady didn’t mind the size.
Thumbelina was so pretty that when a toad that was passing by got charmed by her beauty and thought, "She will make a lovely wife for my son," so the mother toad kidnapped her so she (Thumbelina) would marry her ugly toad son. The toads put her on a water-lily leaf in the river so she wouldn’t runaway.
Fortunately, the fish in the river saw that something had to be wrong, ‘how can a beauty like her be with some ugly toad like that.’ So they ate the bottom of the leaf and let Thumbelina float away.
A white butterfly dude was flying by when he saw her gorgeousness so he agreed to tie his legs to the water-lily. The butterfly flew and pulled Thumbelina quickly down the stream.
Later Thumbelina was again kidnapped, this time by a disgusting May bug (the butterfly probably died because he was tied up to the leaf, floating down the river… where all those big fish that eat butterflies were swimming around)
The May bug, of course, wanted to marry her. All the jealous ladies May bugs started to murmur and convinced Thumbelina and the dude May bug that she was ugly. So dude May bug dumped her. Thumbelina was sad because she was so “ugly that not even a May bug would want her around”Later, she agreed to marry a Rich blind mole, but it wasn’t for his money (or so she says). It was because he was blind and treated her nicely.
A bird made her come to her senses (that she could do better) and, together, ran away on the wedding day.
At the end, she finally met someone handsome enough. This time she was the one wanting to marry him. He was a ballerina dude, who liked to dance ballet in tidy pants with the flowers (Not all flowers were female flowers).
Well, we all know how THAT's going to end.
If you ask me, she got what she deserved. I mean, she never, no even once, thought about coming back and tell her mother she was ok? (Can you even imagine that poor elderly nice lady’s grief?) And what about taking advantage of the butterfly dude who most likely died? That though was the butterfly’s fault, but running away on the wedding day?
Moral of the story 1: Be aware! Beauty makes us do stupid things.
Moral of the Story 2: Beauty is not a blessing, it’s a curse
