The ugly duckling story is about a mother duck who hatched ten ducklings during summer, but one was ugly and did not look like the others. The other ducklings did not like the ugly gray duckling because he swam better than all of them. All the birds in the farm discriminated him making him feel so lonely and even hated himself. One day during winter, he decided to go to the river alone, he saw some swans swimming, and the ugly duckling enjoyed it. When he went back to the river one morning in spring to watch the birds, he wanted to die because he did not lie. However, the ugly duckling looked into the river, and so himself looking white and as beautiful as the swans.
The theme of the story is friendship relationships with people of different personalities. The identity of character according to the story is more important than conforming to the societal perspective. The characters of the story are mother duck, the regular ducklings, and the ugly ducklings. Other animals in the farm and the swans are also characters in the story. The story also depicts how parents love and defend their children regardless of the society. The ugly duckling suffers physical abuse for his fellow birds. The irony illustrated in the story is when mother duck takes the ducklings out in summer for swimming only for the ugly duckling to emerge the best. There is a lot of personification in the whole story for example ‘mother’ duck (Andersen, 2015) .
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The primary audience for the short fairy tale are the children. The students are taught on how to appreciate their identity even when in a group of diversified friends. The ugly duckling was just a coincidence a swan’s egg had landed on the duck’s nest unknowingly. However, the ugly duckling went through a lot of stress before identifying himself as a swan. When he discovers himself, he joins the other birds flock and flies away. The moral lesson of the story is identifying oneself, reaching out the desires and taking actions towards the wishes.
Reference
Andersen, H. C. (2015). The ugly duckling. New York: Oxford Publishers.
