The Ugly Duckling

Do you remember reading fairytales when you were younger and thinking nothing about the real meanings? If you look closely into almost every fairytales, you will find a true meaning. Some meanings are good and some bad. An example of a fairytale that provides both good and bad meanings is the ugly duckling.

            In this story, a duck is made fun of because he is different than all of his brothers. One day he gets so upset that he leaves his family and adventures off to find a family that will accept him as he is. As he traveled, he met a old woman that was going to accept him but didn’t because she realized the duck was a male and couldn’t lay eggs. The duck then came across a hunter that tried shooting him. Everything was going wrong until one winter when a farmer found the duckling almost frozen in the snow. The farmer took the duckling in with the responsibility of showering the duckling with care. Eventually the duckling got big and the farmer had to let the duck go. The farmer let him go by the pond; once the ugly duck was left alone he gazed at himself in the water and realized that his looks have changed. Next in the story the duck came across a group of swans and realized that he is really a swan and not a duck.  He becomes part of the swan family and one day he hears a child say “look at that young swan, he is the finest of them all.”  

The bad part about this story is, it shows children that adults can be very selfish. “Don’t judge the book by its cover” this theory is broken thought the story. Everybody judges the duckling by his looks. It shows that many people do not accept other people for who they are.  Another bad example in this fairytales is, the ugly duckling did not accept himself for what he was. If the duck had accepted his differences, he would have been happier.

The good meaning of the story is it shows that nobody is perfect and that everyone should be accepted as who they are. Another good meaning is even when you are going through something tough in the end everything will be okay.

http://ivyjoy.com/fables/duckling.html
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/uglyduckling/index.html  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lapDmCnZN3A