"The Little Girl Who Sold Matches" is the 8th lesson of the third unit of the third grade of the unified edition of primary school Chinese. The texts in this unit should broaden students' reading horizons and guide them to read fairy tales that suit their level.
The Little Girl Who Sold Matches is the legend of Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, telling the story of a little girl who sells matches and freezes to death on the street Chinese New Year's Eve.
The alternation of realism and fiction, the emergence of beautiful illusions and cruel realities, is the characteristic of this fairy tale, and it is also the most touching place of this poignant story.
Contradiction one: the contradiction between reality and illusion.
In this text, the most easily discovered and the most obvious first contradiction is the contradiction between reality and illusion.
1. The little hand is frozen. It was very cold, so she had the illusion of a stove, how warm.
2. The little girl in reality is cold and hungry, and she may not have eaten for a whole day. The illusion reappeared—roast goose, what a delicious food.
3. The little girl in reality was barefoot, and the big slippers were not hers but her mother's, frightened by the speeding carriage, and lost one, and another, which was also taken away by the little boy. Her hallucinations were that of a Christmas tree, that she longed to be loved, that she longed for a warm home.
4. If the little girl in reality goes back, she will definitely be beaten, beaten by her father, and will not get the warmth and care of family affection at home. So the hallucinations came in—Grandma. Grandma was so kind, so gentle, and how much loving care Grandma had given her.
5. The little girl in reality does not dare to go home. Home is not a physical concept, it should be a harbor of the soul, home should provide her with the safest and warmest psychological feelings, but she does not have such a family, and in the illusion - she and grandma flew away, where she is going to fly, not so much heaven, but the ideal warm, safe home in the little girl's mind.
So this is the first pair of contradictions, everywhere opposites. In reality, little girls live almost like hell. And in the illusion, there is no doubt that it is a heavenly life. Reality and illusion, hell and heaven form the first pair of contradictions, and this contradiction is the most obvious.
Contradiction two: the contradiction between personality and encounters.
The second pair of contradictions, there is a certain degree of difficulty, may not be able to be immediately captured by us, as said before some contradictions need to be refined, some contradictions need to be compared, and some contradictions need to be restored.
The second pair of contradictions is the contradiction between the character of the little girl and the encounter she is in. First, let's look at the character of the little girl. The protagonist of "The Little Girl Who Sold Matches" is undoubtedly a little girl, what kind of little girl is this? Let's take a look:
1. She's well-behaved. On a cold day, he was still selling matches on the street barefoot, and he didn't dare to go home for a whole day, how well-behaved and sensible.
2. She is beautiful. The curly snow of blond hair fell on her hair, so beautiful that she herself did not notice.
3. She is kind. Even if the slippers were taken away by the little boy, she did not chase after it, she did not resent, what a kind little girl.
4. She is pure, and her spirit is so noble. She was frozen to death, but there was still a smile at the corner of her mouth.
In the midst of such a tragic encounter, she did not forget to expect, she did not lose faith. It can be said that this is an angel who has fallen to the earth. We often say that good people have good rewards, and there will be such expectations after restoration. In fact, in real life, what happened to her was:
1. Cold. Hands were frozen.
2. Hunger. Nothing to eat.
3. Poverty. Not a good life.
4. Loneliness, pain. Without the love of parents.
Her encounter is hell, and the angel falls into hell, which is the second pair of contradictions. And this pair of contradictions will resonate with many people. If he is a bad guy and he has such an encounter, we may sympathize, but it is difficult to be moved, it is difficult to have that feeling of tearing the heart and lungs.
However, a good man, an angel, suffered such a miserable life, and everyone's heart will be broken. This contradiction needs to be discovered by refining and contrasting, so by analyzing the contradiction, our interpretation of this text enters a more hidden essence.
Contradiction three: the contradiction between the environment and the heart.
The third pair of contradictions is the deepest hidden contradiction, on the one hand is the environment in which the little girl lives, or the social reality, but on the other hand, it is the inner psychology of the little girl. Simply put, the environment is so hateful, so ugly, so dark, but her heart is so bright, so good.
Let's take a look at the social environment:
1. Apathy. All day, no one had ever bought her a match, and society was so indifferent.
2. Selfishness. The carriage sped by, not looking at the little girl at all, extremely selfish.
3. Ugliness. Not a single match was sold for a day, and if he went he would be beaten, and even his dearest parents became so ugly.
4. Being discriminated against. She's just a little girl.
5. Injustice. How unfair society is, some people have fragrant barbecues, and some people have beautiful Christmas trees. The little girl has nothing, and the environment she is in is hell.
We say "near Zhu is red, near ink is black", please ask the little girl because of such a hellish environment, and let her heart become like hell?
No, deep in such an environment, her heart is still full of warmth, still longing for a good life, still longing for prosperity, still eager for love, still eager for happiness. It can be said that her heart lives in heaven.
We can also say that "this little girl lived the highest realm in the lowest circumstances." So she brings us not only sympathy, but also a kind of respect.
Doesn't such a noble soul deserve our full respect for her? In exchange for you, can you live such a realm in such a situation?
Gu Yue's "Western Traditional Literary Criticism and the Biblical Archetype of Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales" has such a passage: the strength of the little girl comes from the "heavenly hope" in his heart. This power from the other world can transcend the pain of the world, enabling her to "overcome those mutable things" "by eternity" and keep smiling even in the face of death.
Teacher Wang Songzhou believes that the fairy tale of "The Little Girl Who Sold Matches" is not just for people to sympathize. If that's all there is to it, then what we read out is only superficial.
Only through the second and third pairs of contradictions can we finally feel the power of the little girl from the other world, the power that can transcend the suffering of the world. For us, it has greater enlightenment significance and value.
The above is from the analysis of contradictions to see "The Little Girl Who Sold Matches", next, we deepen our understanding of the text by grasping the structure.
What is a grasp structure? Mr. Cao Xixiu said in "The Theory and Practice of Criticism of Modern Chinese Literary Forms" that "from the logical level of thinking, our analysis of text content always starts from the grasp of form to achieve the purpose of understanding and discovering meaning."
Our analysis of the content of the text, first of all, can only start from the grasp of the form, this form Wang Songzhou believes is the structure presented by the entire text, and the structure is the highest form. Different structures, expressing different meanings, trying to achieve different purposes of expression.
"The Little Girl Who Sold Matches" as a classic fairy tale, what is the structure of this text? What are the characteristics? The structure of the entire text can actually be divided into three parts:
The first part: writing reality. From the beginning of the article, "It's extremely cold, the snow is getting dark again" until the fourth natural paragraph, "Although the biggest crack has been blocked with grass and rags, the wind can still be poured in."
Teachers who have read this text in this part are clear that all illusions have a real root, so where is the root of this reality? Where is it written? It is written in the first part, that is, the first to fourth natural paragraphs.
Part II: Writing Hallucinations. From "the beginning of a pair of her small hands almost frozen" first out of the stove, then there are roast geese, then the Christmas tree, and finally grandma.
All the way to "They flew away in light and joy, higher and higher, to a place where there was no cold, no hunger, and no pain" was written as an illusion.
Part III: Writing is also reality. That's the last part of the article, "How happy she was, and followed her grandmother to the happiness of the New Year." ”
Reality-illusion-reality, this is the basic structure of the entire text of "The Little Girl Who Sold Matches", and how reality-illusion-reality is unified. The attentive teacher will find that the little girl who sells matches, in this fairy tale, there is a very important prop (bracket) - matches.
It is the match that connects reality and illusion, it is the match that connects illusion and reality, and it is the match that integrates reality-illusion-reality.
If we do a word frequency, we will find that in the first part of reality, the match appears three times; in the second hallucination part, the match appears fourteen times; in the third part of reality, the match appears once. Taken together, the word match appears eighteen times throughout the story, which is definitely a high-frequency word!
Where do matches appear?
1. "Her old apron has a lot of matches in it" (not even a basket, the apron is still old)
2. "No one has ever bought a match for her all day"
3. "She didn't dare go home because she didn't sell a match"
4. "Ah, even a small match is good for her!" (Slowly passing through the match into the illusion)
5. "Does she dare to draw a match from a handful and burn it on the wall to warm her little hand?" (Matches further lead the little girl to hallucinations)
6. "Whew! Matches are lit" (hallucinations appear)
7. "The match is out, the stove is gone." (The hallucination is gone)
8. "She sat there with only a burned matchstick in her hand." (The matchstick here is a symbol of reality)
9-17. Matches are re-ignited (hallucinations appear again) - matches are extinguished again (hallucinations disappear again)... The second part is to connect the stories through matches. Too many matches, all the way to the last plate, back to reality.
18. "The little girl sat there with a burned matchstick in her hand. (The matches are all burned out)
There are so many matches before and after, connecting reality-illusion-reality into an organic whole. Let's take a look at the role of matches:
1. When the match is burned and brings light, the little girl will hallucinate and fulfill all her good wishes.
2. When the match is extinguished and darkness appears, she returns to reality in the darkness.
If reality-illusion-reality is a superficial structure, then the burning-extinguishing-extinguishing-extinguishing of matches is the metaphorical structure of the story. Matches burned and brought light, and the little girl's hallucinations were short-lived, while the matches were extinguished and the darkness appeared for so long.
We have also found an interesting finding from the "five hallucinations" of the little girl, which seems to be implicitly related to Maslow's hierarchy of needs (physiological needs, security needs, belonging needs, respect needs, self-actualization needs).
The narrative structure of "illusion" is also unique and meaningful:
1. For the narrative of each match- rubbing, the basic structure is similar: rubbing - hallucination - extinguishing;
2. The narrative structure has subtle and exquisite changes every time, the narrative structure of the third rubbing match is the key to the turn, the match is extinguished and the illusion does not disappear;
3. The inner needs are getting stronger and stronger, and the hallucinations are becoming more and more real.
Why didn't this fairy tale be written? When the little girl polished the first match, she flew away with her grandmother?
1. From the perspective of human needs: the demand is strong and gradually rising;
2. From the perspective of narrative art: twists and turns, fascinating;
3. From the perspective of the rhythm of the chapter: detailed and strategic, highlighting the key points;
4. From the perspective of highlighting the main idea: preparing for the momentum, and showing the spirit of the chapter.
Mr. Liang Xiaosheng said, "'The Little Girl Who Sold Matches' is Andersen's tearful work, and it is indeed a mirror for the injustice of the world, but what he evokes is not hatred and revolution, but sympathy and humanitarianism." "For such humanitarianism, we should raise a sufficient respect!
(The first time I tried to write, one by one, I wrote until late at night, if you can insist on seeing here, you may wish to give some encouragement, like, and pay attention to it!) I will continue to work hard! Thanks! [Yay])