WRITING AN INDEPENDENT CRITIQUE

ENGLISH QUARTER 3

Name: Janelle M. Angcao

Section: Faraday

SHORT STORY : THUMBELINA

Paragraph 1 In this story, we are introduced to a woman who lived in the countryside.
She really wanted to have a child. One day she comes across an old lady
whom she invites into her home, and as a reward for her kindness, the
old lady gives her a special seed. She then plants the seed, and a small
lady the size of a thumb is born. She names her Thumbelina. Thumbelina
is so small that she sleeps inside a walnut shell. One night, a frog climbs
through the window where Thumbelina's walnut bed is. The frog thinks
she would be a good match for his son and takes Thumbelina and her
walnut bed to a lily pad in the middle of the lake. When Thumbelina
wakes up, she is confused and panicked in the unfamiliar surroundings.
She screams for help, and swallows help her get to the land, and she
thanks them for their help. She is lost with nowhere to go and survives
by sleeping on leaves and drinking dew from flowers. One day, she
stumbles upon a small mud house. The mouse who lives there sees
Thumbelina's condition and pities her, allowing Thumbelina to stay with
her. Thumbelina cooks and tells stories of gratefulness to the mouse. A
few days later, the mouse's friend, who is the wealthiest mouse in the
land, comes to visit. He immediately falls in love with Thumbelina and
asks her to marry him, promising to show her the house she would soon
be living in. On their way, they see an injured swallow. The wealthy
mouse ridicules the injured swallow, and Thumbelina refuses to marry
him. She takes care of the swallow, and when spring comes, the swallow
can fly again. However, Thumbelina feels guilty about suddenly
rejecting the wealthy mouse. When they meet again, he asks Thumbelina
to come with him. She requests to spend one last day in the open air
before never seeing the sun and the skies again. He allows her, and
suddenly the swallow, whom Thumbelina had helped, comes back and
asks her if she wants to come with them, to which she happily agrees.
She is brought to a flower kingdom ruled by the handsome flower king,
who has a pair of the most beautiful wings Thumbelina has ever seen.
He then asks her to marry him. Thumbelina happily agrees, and when
 they got married, she grew her own pair of wings similar to her
husband's.
Paragraph 2 In my opinion, I really like how she was not really looking for love. She
was just a kind and sympathetic lady.
Paragraph 3 For me, I don’t like how cliché and how their attitude and physical
appearance were linked in the story. How frogs were disrespectful and
somehow arrogant. The wealthy mouse who was egoistic and prideful.
To the flower king being the most handsome and also had a good
personality. I also did not like the stereotype of women being the inferior
sex in this story. Plus how some of the “men” in the story treated
Thumbelina like some trophy they wanted to win.
Paragraph 4 This isn’t really the main lesson of the story but I really liked this
interpretation of mine. There are a lot of people who you will meet along
the way, but only some are truly genuine to you. We have met a lot of
people who may or may have not liked us genuinely, it may be
romantically or platonically. But only few people actually care and stay
with us throughout. I’ve personally met a lot of people in my life, I’m
glad I am still close with most of them. We all will continue to meet new
people in our lives that will either stay with us or say goodbye to us.
However the said relationship/ friendship might’ve ended, I’m still glad
I met those people and I don’t regret spending my time with them .
Paragraph 5 I’d give the story a 6/10. Most of the points deducted was because of the
stereotype in the story and it really did not sit well with me.