30. The Little Match Girl

 Posted by T. T. and P. R. in July 2019

The Little Match Girl is a famous story by Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875). In the evening of the last day of the year, it was terribly cold. A poor little girl had to stand in the street to sell matches, but no one had bought any. She lost her slippers and had to stand there in bare feet. She sat down under the eaves of a house and struck one of the matches. To her surprise, she then saw a stove with hot fire burning. She struck a second match, and saw a roast goose on a table. She lit another match, and saw a Christmas tree with many candles which rose up and became stars in the sky, but one candle fell down. She remembered her grandmother who told her that when a star falls, a soul goes up to heaven. She then lit all of the remaining matches. Then the grandmother appeared. Taking the little girl in her arms, she flew up high in the sky to heaven where there was no cold, no hunger and no sorrow. On the next morning, the first dawn in the New Year, the little girl was found leaning against the side of the house , frozen to death, but with a smile upon her lips.

This is a sad story of a poor little girl. But, many readers may feel compassion for the girl as if it is their own experience. Some readers may also associate with poor and homeless people who must spend bitterly cold days and nights without warmth or food. This should warn us all that the rich nature surrounding us is in danger from human caused destruction and pollution, so that future people will most likely have to live in terribly poor environments. This means that the misery depicted in The Little Match Girl story will have  spread around the world, and will eventually cover the whole of our precious planet.

However, the latter half of the story is a declaration of spiritual victory. The girl’s dead grandmother appeared in her soul and brought her to heaven where there is no misery to hurt her. To make sure that the victory is not imaginary but is reality, the author added the phrase “... with a smile upon her lips”. It means that the little girl actually felt eased with her beloved grandmother. In contrast with the explosive spreading of misery in modern world, the spiritual force tends to shrink in the civilized society where science and technology fully occupy the human mind. If this situation continues into the future, then human survival is vulnerable.

To save our Planet, recognition of spirituality will be required. If all present people try to satisfy their own mind only by materialistic richness, the desire for possession will spread endlessly until our environment becomes in danger. Thus, if the human race can survive till the remote future, they will satisfy their own life with minimal possessions and rich spirituality. To achieve that, the present era may be a pivotal moment of cultural transition in which human progression changes its direction towards a safer and brilliant way. The Little Match Girl would be a prophetic text which guided humans to the right way.