The Ugly Duckling

The ugly duckling is a traditional tale. The history is about a mother duck who was sitting on a clutch of new eggs, getting six ducklings, but one of them was different, because it had grey feathers instead of being yellow. The ducklings grew quickly, but the mother duck could not understand how this ugly duckling could be one of hers. The ugly duckling always was discriminated against and teased by their brother and the farmyard folks, and it was feeling every unhappy day due to the fact he felt nobody wanted him, then decided to run away. He stopped in other ponds and found other birds, but nobody accepted him. Also found with many people who wanted to obtain benefit from him; equally found a farmer who took him home to his children where he received a lot of care. The ugly duckling grew so big the farmers decided to set him free by the pond. In the end, there in the pond was when the duckling saw himself mirrored in the water goodness. After he flew north and glided on the pond where he found many friends, due to the fact that he was very like them; he also felt that his good looks was admired and the ugly duckling felt very happy because were well accepted by the rest.

The ugly duckling is a good model for young girls and boys, because he teaches us, how the society can discriminate against somebody only for the physique, beauty or appearance, which is wrong. The most important is to know people not only for appearance but also into each and to accept to the persons for how they are.

Some people might think this story is not possible or can not be true as part of the society, but for the contents which it has, if is a history that happens daily in life, without recognizing sometimes that our behavior is wrong when we discriminate people only for their appearance and not value them for their sentiment or aptitude.

Melyna, Peru-AE, CESL Today v56, 2004