Thumbelina: Negative Stereotypes that Society has Developed to Individuals

Society creates Fairytales to teach people to have certain morals, and values. One Fairytale in particular is Hans Christian Anderson’s Thumbelina. Thumbelina is a story about a little girl who is underestimated because of her size. However, Thumbelina exceeds the expectations of the people she meets along the fairytale. However, this fairytales is filled with bias and negative stereotypes that society has developed to certain individuals. The idea that People frequently use demographic characteristics to categorize others and predict their likely behaviors, is the reason for people being out casted (Jennifer A. Chatman; Jeffrey T. Polzer; Sigal G. Barsade; Margaret A. Neale Administrative Science Quarterly ).

In Hans Christian Andersen's story of Thumbelina, a tiny sized girl goes on the adventure of a lifetime. The story was originally written in 1835 in Denmark, and first translated to English in 1846. Thumbelina is a magical story, with both positive and negative messages for viewers. On the surface it is about true love and accepting who you are, but seems to contradict those messages if looked into a little deeper. The opinions of other people temporarily persuade her, leading her to accept a marriage based on comfort rather than true love, because she thinks her prince is dead. However, Thumbelina finally stands up for herself and says no.

This Fairytale addresses the issue of how society portrays women as the weak gender. In the story Thumbelina is carried from one place to another by her friends, and seems to always be belittled. She relies heavily on friends, which can be seen as both positive and negative. The creatures she meets up along the way always address her as weak, and that she can’t do anythi...

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...h herself. She is the epitome of self – confidence, because she was small which was a disadvantage for her in the obstacles on her journey. The thing that made her confident was that she believed in herself, and she knew that she was small but her size didn’t matter in the end to her, her happiness did. Size doesn’t matter in the end because you can always prove people wrong, you can’t let other people tell you that you can’t do something just because you’re small. Thumbelina exemplifies that even though you are different than other people, your looks don’t define you, and your character defines you.

Works Cited

"The Three Waves of Feminism." - Fall 2008. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.

"Lit2Go." Thumbelina. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.

Chatman, Jennifer A., Jeffrey T. Polzer, Sigal G. Barsade, and Margaret A. Neale. JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.