The Little Match Girl
by Claudia Lee
claudialee@ou.edu
The little match girl
Seems like old times
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Her hands were almost frozen so she thought a burning match would be
good for her. She took a match from a match box and stuck the match
against the wall. The match lighted up. It gave a warm and bright
light. She saw that a large iron stove had appeared in front of her.
She
stretched out her feet to the bright light and tried to warm them. The
flame of the match went out. The image vanished immediately.
She rubbed another match against the wall. When the match lighted up,
the wall that she was leaning on became transparent. She was able to
see through into the room. She saw a table that was covered with a
white
table-cloth with many foods on it. She even could smell the food. She
stretched out her hand towards the room and tried to get the food. The
flame of the match went out again. The wall became dark and cold again.
She was not able to see through it anymore.
She lighted up another match. She was able to see through the door of
the house across the street. The house belonged to a rich man. She
saw a very big and beautiful Christmas-tree with thousands of lit
tapers, which she longed for, inside the house. She stretched out
her hands and tried to reach it again. The flame went out at that time.
The door became dark and she was not able to see through it.
She looked up at the dark sky with thousands of stars sparkling. She
thought of her late grandmother. She lighted up the last match. Her
grandmother appeared in the sky. Her grandmother was smiling to her.
She stretched out her hands and tried to hug her grandmother. The flame
went out again. Her grandmother disappeared. She cried loudly,
"Grandmother. Don't leave me alone." She wanted to light up another
match, but she had no more matches to light up anymore. She cried and
cried, curled up on the street until she fell over.
After the terribly cold night, she woke up from bed in the morning. She
found herself in a very big and pretty room with an old man and an old
woman sitting around her. The old couple had found her on the street
the
night before so they took her home. After knowing the little match
girl's humble life, they wanted to take care of her because they did
not have a child of their own and they always wished to have one. They
asked
the little girl's parents for permission to take the little girl
from them. The little girl's parents approved because they thought
they did not have the ability to take care of her and they both wished
she could have better life. The little girl lived happily in her new
home.
********************************************************** THE END
******************************************************
I changed the ending in my story because I like happy endings more. The
original ending was a sad ending: the little match girl died, frozen to
death on the last evening of the year. I left out the
part that she saw a star fall and she knew her grandmother was dead at
that time. She lighted up a match and her grandmother appeared. She
tried to light up all the matches to keep her grandmother there. Her
grandmother took the little girl flying upwards. People saw the little
girl was leaning on the wall with pale cheeks and a smile on her lips
in the
next morning. The little match girl and Cinderella both have a very
humble life. The little girl was forced to sell the matches on the
street and Cinderella was forced to do all the houseworks. Snow White
and Cinderella are both end up being happily with the princes but the
little match girl is not. The little match girl's story does not
involve any romantic element.
Title: The Little Match Girl
Authors: Hans Christian Andersen
Book and Year: Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales (1872)
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