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I. Detailed outline
II. Sample essay
Outline for analyzing the four dreams of the little match girl in the short story The Little Match Girl
* First dream:
- Seeing a fireplace
=> It's the need for existence, for safety against the biting cold. The girl yearns to be warmed, to sit in a room with a fireplace, to drive away the freezing hardship amidst the midnight fields along with the extreme loneliness of a pitiful child.
* Second dream:
- Dreaming of a room with a dining table, roasted goose
=> Longing to compensate physically for the hunger and cold afflicting the poor girl. These are urgent needs for a human, especially for a child who is at the age of growth.
* Third dream:
- Dreaming of a fir tree:
=> Expressing the desire for togetherness, for happiness with family during the New Year's Eve moment.
* Fourth dream:
- Seeing her beloved grandmother.
- The grandmother embodies all the desires, the aspirations that the girl constantly dreams of.
- The image of the grandmother's appearance also represents the emotional deprivation in the girl => Longing for love, familial warmth more than all other mundane values.
- Signaling the end of the suffering in the girl's life, because only by her side does she find happiness, even though the end of the story is the death of the poor match girl on the threshold of the new year.
3. Conclusion
- The four dreams of the poor match girl show us the needs, desires of each child, each person in life, which are the most essential desires.
- Directing people towards empathy and sharing with the unfortunate fates in society.
II. Sample essay analyzing the four dreams of the poor match girl in the short story The Little Match Girl (Standard)
According to American psychologist Abraham Maslow, humans always have different levels of needs, including physiological or existence needs, safety needs, social needs, needs for respect, and needs for self-fulfillment. The story of The Little Match Girl by the famous Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, with its main content being the four dreams of the pitiful match girl, has shown the yearning for the most essential human needs: existence, safety, and social. However, the harsh reality of life has pushed the girl to the end, which is a tragic death alongside the unburned matches, making those dreams just illusions. From there, we draw deep lessons about profound empathy with the unfortunate fates in society, especially children, an age group that should enjoy happiness, education, and the best things, not struggle for survival in hardship.
The story tells of a poor match girl, struggling in the New Year's Eve night with the faint hope of selling a few more matchboxes, as she hadn't sold any all day. But because of exhaustion and the cold, she sits in a corner, reminiscing about the past. It's truly pitiful and painful when the girl, who once had a wealthy life, seems to have lost all that happiness with the departure of her beloved grandmother...(To be continued)
