What the little robber told (based on the fairy tale “The Snow Queen”) - Andersen Hans Christian

Essays on literary works - 2023

What the little robber told (based on the fairy tale “The Snow Queen”)
Andersen Hans Christian

Since early childhood, I have enjoyed violent games. It was not difficult for me to tickle a reindeer with a knife. I had a whole hundred pigeons. It seemed to indicate my love for birds, but it wasn't. Once I grabbed a dove and shook it so hard that it beat its wings. After that, I laughed for a very long time. I considered this behavior normal. After all, I lived surrounded by roadside robbers. The leader of these robbers was my own mother. I think she loved me in her own way. She gave indulgence to my wild ideas.

When my age, the girl Gerda, fell into the hands of the robbers, I wished that she lived with me, my mother also did not refuse me. Gerda was brought up quite differently from me. It was while talking with Gerda that I learned that such is love, kindness, selflessness, pity. If the reindeer was afraid of me, then he sincerely fell in love with Gerda. To tell the truth, I started to envy Gerda. Why do the doves and deer love her and not me? Although, on the other hand, what to envy? Gerda lost her friend Kai, who was captured by the Snow Queen. Gerda was sad. And what good is it that a person is sad? Is it envious? But I was jealous. Before meeting Gerda, I did not know what love and friendship were, but this girl did. She went on dangerous journeys to save this boy. And I probably wouldn't be able to. Or maybe is that not jealousy? Under the influence of Gerda, I myself began to feel sympathy and pity. I decided to help Gerda. But it was hard for me to part with her, as I got used to her. I gave her a deer, some clothes, food. Gerda continued her wanderings, and I was left alone. However, next to me were my pigeons, mother-robber. Every day I saw the faces of the robbers, but I looked at them with different eyes. Maybe it was Gerda's eyes.

I began to understand that you can’t build on someone else’s misfortune, that you can’t live at someone else’s expense, that cruelty consoles no one. I decided to start a new life. Secretly from the robbers, I myself set out to wander, to the best of my ability to help those who will need my support. Maybe someday my mother will also need my help - I will not refuse her. Now I feel like a different person. Maybe I will be lucky, like Gerda, and I will meet a real friend on my life path.