The Children’s Story and Values: “Thumbelina” by H. C. Andersen

Abstract

This paper aims to confront the image of woman in the nineteenth century as presented in a tale by Andersen with the image marketed by the mass media in the twenty-first century: woman as object. Comparing both representations will allow us to glimpse two stereotypes of woman that carry different values. From a theoretical-methodological perspective, we will use the notional field of social representations (Raiter, 2010).

We propose the reading, reflection, and analysis of a traditional tale with adolescents and children in order for them to consider several issues: that the concept of woman varies historically; that values change according to space and time; that traditional tales have much to tell us about what we are and what we think; and, finally, that from the point of view of existentialist philosophy, the mass media have turned woman into an object, into a thing to be consumed, thereby depersonalizing her.

We believe that, through a literary piece, teachers and students will be able to delight in the beauty of a traditional tale and, at the same time, acquire knowledge of the cultural heritage that is transmitted and endures through authors who use what is valuable in human society as the substance of their art.

We will briefly explain the theoretical assumptions concerning children’s tales and recover the existentialist proposal of Buber and Jaspers, issues that are relevant to the analysis of “Pulgarcita” (“Thumbelina”). Finally, we will argue in favor of reading this text in order to reflect on the values conveyed by this fantastic story about woman and her relationship with others, contrasting it with the image of woman today.