The Little Match Girl: Review

The Little Match Girl by Jerry Pinkney

This story is about a young girl who was very poor. On the night before the New Year, she was trying to sell matches to people. The merchants or anybody else wouldn't want to buy it. There was nobody there to help her. She was longing the warmth of home but she can't come home because she thinks that her father would beat if he finds out that she hadn't sold any matches and it was also cold in their house because they only had a roof. Many would relate to the character in this story. The people who experienced pain, hunger, loneliness and longing of love and to be loved. 

This story by Hans Christian Andersen was the first story I read as a child that made me feel blessed, lucky, and loved. Many of the children today is experiencing what the main character felt. Especially now that many families around the world are experiencing poverty and not able to provide good shelters for their families, good food and clothes that would protect them from the harsh weather conditions. Feeling cold, in pain, hungry and seeing that there was no one there to help them in any way that they can. This story even though I was an eight year old and don't understand much deeper sense about things that time when I read it, this story opened my eyes. It made me see the truth about society and how not everyone is blessed to be given a warm home that we could always come back to, food to eat when we are hungry, comfortable clothes that would keep us war in cold days and many other primary needs. 

In this story, this little girl had suffered so much that she was willing to come with her grandmother in heaven. It only tells us that we should not be afraid of dying. It is not always terrible and sad. Sometimes, it's also comforting, beautiful and happy. That after everything you've been through, and after a long time of pain and struggle, you get to finally rest with the other loved ones of yours who left earlier than you did. You get to experience an endless happiness. No more pain. No more hunger. No more cold.

You would see here that there is always hope. The author of this book poured a lot of emotions writing this beautiful literary piece. He opened a lot of eyes, taught a lot of minds and touched a lot of hearts with this story. Even if you read it again and again, you would still remember the pain the girl suffered before she was with her grandmother like it was just the first time you've read it. And it always feels like the first time when you felt the comfort when she had already obtained peace.
I would say that this is one of the many favorites i have. Why you say? Because here, even though I have not experienced this kind of hardships in life before, I felt it. I felt sad. I could literally put myself in her shoes and feel how hard she was doing. Living with no love and having to deal with it every waking hour. Or wanting simple things and could not just get it because you can't afford it. All the settings feel so surreal that you could literally feel how cold it was that day when she was selling those matches. This story is a really good story. Thought it is sad, you will realize and contemplate about so many things including life, how blessed and lucky you are nit having to experience with this kind of struggles and hardships. Or if you are experiencing this kind of pain, always keep in mind that there would always be a happy place for you. That somewhere along the bumps in life there is a straight road leading to the light. Where you would always feel happy.

-- Solis, Angela