The Ugly Duckling Book
Everardo Frost
After a mother duck's eggs hatch, one of the ducklings is perceived by the other animals as an ugly little creature and suffers much verbal and physical abuse. He wanders from the barnyard and lives with wild ducks and geese until hunters slaughter the flocks. He finds a home with an old woman, but her cat and hen tease and taunt him mercilessly, and once again he sets off alone.
The duckling sees a flock of migrating wild swans. He is delighted and excited but cannot join them because he is too young, ugly, and unable to fly. When winter arrives, a farmer finds and carries the freezing duckling home but he is frightened by the farmer's noisy children and flees the house. The duckling spends a miserable winter alone outdoors, mostly hiding in a cave on the lake that partly freezes over.
The duckling, now having fully grown and matured, cannot endure a life of solitude and hardship anymore. He decides to throw himself at a flock of swans, feeling that it is better to be killed by such beautiful birds than to live a life of ugliness. He is shocked when the swans welcome and accept him, only to realise by looking at his reflection in the water that he had been not a duckling but a swan all this time. The flock takes to the air, and he spreads his wings to take flight with the rest of his new family.
In reviewing Hans Christian Andersen: A New Life by biographer Jens Andersen, British journalist Anne Chisholm writes "Andersen himself was a tall, ugly boy with a big nose and big feet, and when he grew up with a beautiful singing voice and a passion for the theater, he was cruelly teased and mocked by other children".[1]
Speculation suggests that Andersen was the illegitimate son of Prince Christian Frederik (later King Christian VIII of Denmark), and found this out sometime before he wrote the book, and then that being a swan in the story was a metaphor not just for inner beauty and talent but also for secret royal lineage.[2]
The tale was adapted to a variety of media. Films based on the tale include two Silly Symphonies animated shorts produced by Walt Disney called The Ugly Duckling. The first was produced in 1931 in black and white, and a remake in 1939 in Technicolor. The latter film won the 1939 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons),[4] and was the last Silly Symphony to be made. The main difference between the Andersen story and the Disney version is that, in the latter, the little bird's ordeal lasts for only a few minutes, not for months. In 1936, the Fleischer brothers adapted the story for their animated short "The Little Stranger", reversing the story by having an odd chick born into a family of ducks.
In 1956, the Soviet animation studio Soyuzmultfilm produced its 19-minute version of The Ugly Duckling.[5] The anime Princess Tutu is about a duck that turns into a swan-like ballerina. The 1954 Tom and Jerry cartoon Downhearted Duckling is also based on the famous story.
The tale has seen various musical adaptations. In 1914, the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev composed a work for voice and piano based on Nina Meshcherskaya's adaptation of the tale and, in 1932, arranged the work for voice and orchestra. This was transcribed by Lev Konov in 1996, and his opera was a great success in Russia. Other musical versions include the song "The Ugly Duckling" composed by Frank Loesser and sung by Danny Kaye for the 1952 Charles Vidor musical film Hans Christian Andersen, and Honk!, a musical based on the tale which was produced in Britain and won an Olivier Award. The tale was adapted into a musical by Gail Deschamps and Paul Hamilton. In 1998, the musical played the Piccolo Spoleto for seventeen days.[6]
The sky turned dark. CRACK! A bolt of lightning lit up the sky. Then came a big storm, with heavy rains pouring down. In just moments, the Ugly Duckling was soaked through and through. A cold wind started to blow.
The storm ended. Finally he found another lake. Looking in the water, the Ugly Duckling saw a reflection from above - a flock of large birds were flying overhead, above him. He turned to admire them. They were the most beautiful birds he had ever seen. Their long bodies and slender necks winged through the sky with ease and grace. He watched until the very last one had disappeared from view.
The Ugly Duckling stayed at the lake as the days grew shorter. The leaves turned deep red and gold, and fell to the ground. Winter came, setting its blanket of white snow. The cold wind blew and the clouds darkened. He had to dive into small holes in the ice to find fish to eat. Under the ice, it was all he could do to keep paddling so the water wouldn't freeze around him, trapping him underneath the lake.
Spring passed, then summer. The leaves started to change colors when one day, the Ugly Duckling heard quiet splashing sounds behind him. He turned around. A flock of those same beautiful birds he had once seen winging through the sky now sat on the lake.
Then, the bird who used to be the Ugly Duckling realized what had happened. He was no longer an ugly gray bird that wobbled when it walked. He had grown into a beautiful swan! Then a dark thought crossed his mind.
"That's not it at all!" said the first swan who had spoken. "We saw you all alone down here and thought you might want to join us. We don't care how birds look. Why, take a look at Pelican over there."
"What can I tell you?" said Egret. "I love to ride those wind currents! Then found out my entire flock was gone. By then there was no way I could catch up. If the swans didn't come along and invite me to join them, who knows where I'd be now?"
The hero who used to be an Ugly Duckling considered these stories, yet was still skeptical. "Winter may get a little cold on the lake," he said, "but no one bothers me here. And spring comes eventually."
"Eventually?" said the first swan. "Why suffer if you don't have to? Where we fly to, the sun shines hot all day long. Imagine it - thick, delicious pondweed for as far as you can see. Algae, waterside grasses, the works!"
I think this was a amazing story. I felt like you should have added a bit more where the used to be ugly duckling showed his family of ducks what he looks like now. I feel that they would be jealous and sorry for the words they used to make the ugly ducking feel bad about himself.
Yes, right now I do not feel good with people my age. It just gives me a feeling in my throat that makes me wanna cry.
The most important lesson the Ugly Duckling learns is to not to treat others poorly just because of what they look like.
My little sis really enjoyed this so much! I read it to her at night. She liked it so much that she fell asleep? before I even finished the story; which is kinda rare with her because it usually takes like a hour or so to make her go to sleep. Thank you for the story!!?
1.I did feel that way especially when I was a school-goer because of how I looked,no one treated me fairly calling me fat,I could not play with others.I felt like an outsider, constantly being bullied for no good reason.
The moral of Ugly Duckling tells us that no matter what others say or think about you, always believe in yourself.There is beauty even in imperfection.The world may turn against your back,but you have got nothing to lose :)
C is for Color. Multiple colors are a warning sign. While benign moles are usually a single shade of brown, a melanoma may have different shades of brown, tan or black. As it grows, the colors red, white or blue may also appear.
E is for Evolving. Any change in size, shape, color or elevation of a spot on your skin, or any new symptom in it, such as bleeding, itching or crusting, may be a warning sign of melanoma.
Please note: Since not all melanomas have the same appearance, these photos serve as a general reference for what melanoma can look like. If you see anything NEW, CHANGING or UNUSUAL on your skin, go get checked by a dermatologist.
The Ugly Duckling is another warning sign of melanoma. This recognition strategy is based on the concept that most normal moles on your body resemble one another, while melanomas stand out like ugly ducklings in comparison. This highlights the importance of not just checking for irregularities, but also comparing any suspicious spot to surrounding moles to determine whether it looks different from its neighbors. These ugly duckling lesions can be larger, smaller, lighter or darker, compared to surrounding moles. Also, isolated lesions without surrounding moles for comparison are considered ugly ducklings.
Amelanotic melanomas are missing the dark pigment melanin that gives most moles their color. Amelanotic melanomas may be pinkish, reddish, white, the color of your skin or even clear and colorless, making them difficult to recognize.
Acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM), the most common form of melanoma found in people of color, often appears in hard-to-spot places, including under the fingernails or toenails, on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet. View images.
Check yourself: No matter your risk, examine your skin head-to-toe once a month to identify potential skin cancers early. Take note of existing moles or lesions that grow or change. Learn how to check your skin here.
It was so beautiful out on the country, it was summer- thewheat fields were golden, the oats were green, and down among thegreen meadows the hay was stacked. There the stork minced abouton his red legs, clacking away in Egyptian, which was thelanguage his mother had taught him. Round about the field andmeadow lands rose vast forests, in which deep lakes lay hidden.Yes, it was indeed lovely out there in the country.
In the midst of the sunshine there stood an old manor housethat had a deep moat around it. From the walls of the manor rightdown to the water's edge great burdock leaves grew, andthere were some so tall that little children could stand uprightbeneath the biggest of them. In this wilderness of leaves, whichwas as dense as the forests itself, a duck sat on her nest,hatching her ducklings. She was becoming somewhat weary, becausesitting is such a dull business and scarcely anyone came to seeher. The other ducks would much rather swim in the moat thanwaddle out and squat under the burdock leaf to gossip withher.
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