Fairy Tales And Realties By Hans Christian Andersen

Fairy Tales and Realties â€Å"Now then, let us begin. When we are at the end of the story, we shall know more than we know now: but to begin† (Andersen) This is the way the story of â€Å"The Snow Queen† begins, by the author Hans Christian Andersen. As this story unfolds the reader see’s many avenues that this multi-faceted story shows, based on imagination and reality. It is easy to get lost and discouraged throughout the short story, but in the end, all is found and made known like looking at one’s self in a mirror, one sees all the imaginary and reality, if only they look hard enough. Now, as fairy tales often begin: Once upon a time in a faraway land, in 1805 a boy by the name of Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark to a†¦show more content†¦Kay is a boy that gets a speck of the mirror in his eye and a shard in his heart. The mirror is an evil object that was created to make the world ugly. What was beautiful when viewed in the mirror it became very ugly and distorted. The speck in his eye eventually led to his blindness of his surroundings and the shard in his heart made him very cold and cruel. Gerda in this story is all that is sweet and innocent in this world, and unbeknownst to her, she has the power to talk to animals and understand them. The reader see’s evidence throughout when she talks to a raven and other birds as well as animals throughout the seven stories. Her greatest power is the power over people to persuade them into helping her throughout this story. She comes across a woman, which brings to mind the witch from Hansel and Gretel and the reader is led down the path to the gingerbread house, but this is not the case the woman helps Gerda, instead of trying to eat her. She gives her shelter and it is unclear just how long she stays with this woman, but it appears to be some time before she moves on. The Witch in this story gives her a set of new clothes to aid her on her way. Gerda has lost her red shoes in the river as she climbed into a waiting boat that took her down the river to the cottage where she meets the woman. As she travels down the ri ver, the river itself is trying to help poor Gerda by floating her red shoes after her