A CHILD'S VIEW OF LOSS
Children experience loss in many
different ways and at hugely different
levels. He or she may lose a doll, a
friend, a home, a parent, innocence, a
place at college, respect, ability to do things, health.
The ugly duckling, like many
folktales popular with children, dramatises different losses. Loss of parent’s love, of sibling love, loss
of respect, loss of self-confidence, self-esteem.
Yes there is a seemingly ‘happy’
ending. He finds that he is not a
failure, but a different kind of success.
So that’s okay then, is it? Mum
and Dad love him then because? It would
be interesting to write a story or poem about the Ugly Duckling reflecting on
his life when old. What does he think of
his treatment as the misfit, the ‘other’,
the runt, the ‘different’
one? Has he ever recovered
‘inside’?
Or the story could be a meeting
between the Swan as he is now, and one of his aging, perhaps dying,
parents.
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