Research
Paper on Honk the Ugly Duckling
Hans Christian Anderson is
distinguished by a high-reaching aspiration to break through the
rigid class structure of 19th century Europe. Numerous of his
tales addressed the struggle of the poor within the rigid social
structure of the time. Being a plebian and a social pariah
himself, Hans without a doubt identified with the unfortunate.
From his desolate and ungraceful youth to his dreary adulthood,
Hans remained an outsider. This emotion of solitude appears in
some of his sadder tales such as The Ugly Duckling wherein a
young swan tries to be accepted into a duck family. This tale
reflects Hans’ childhood state of affairs as an adopted child in
Jonas Collin’s household and his efforts to get along with the
family. Talk about the family structure, and it is never shared
in the story. Rather, the structure is distorted by the imagery
of the ugly duckling that is outcaste and disliked by the
others. Thus, depicting that the different and the unique are
always viewed with doubt.
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But in the play Honk! which is the illustration of the Ugly
Duckling, when 'Ugly' becomes the hero, rather that a thing of
distrust. When he comes honking into the world, just after his
four handsome yellow siblings, he is big and shambling and short
sighted and he is wearing an untidy, gray school uniform with a
badge on his blazer bearing the initials "UD". He is branded
from the word go, and subjected to bullying. He is enticed away
by protestations of friendship from a cat, and by the time his
mother catches up with him he is prepared to emerge as a swan.
This adaptation adds lots of ostentatious sinecure to the Hans
Christian Andersen fairy tale about the duckling with the
identity crisis. No sooner has the geek, bespectacled Ugly cast
off his eggshell when he becomes the "yolk" of the duck yard,
ignored by all but his devoted mother, Ida, who tells him to
"hold your head up high." Lured away by the sinister Cat, who
smells culinary possibility in the confused bird, Ugly soon
becomes pointlessly lost. At the end, after a quagmire of
musical adventures and appropriate encounters with crazy
characters, Ugly discover the meaning of his mysterious
exuviates.
Despite awkward animal costumes, the play costume by Skip
Epperson and Maria Crush have intelligently gone minimalist,
relying on accessories and body language to suggest each
creature's personality. Thus, giving way to Hans feeling as he
infrequently avails the opportunity to illustrate feelings in
the children’s book, regardless of the comprehension level.
Thus, in the play Ugly wears a British schoolboy's uniform and
cap. A swan family is radiant in wraparound sunglasses, elegant
white coats and black tights, an extraordinary contrast to the
barnyard ducks in their multicolored commoner garb and boots.
While, adults may find Honk's message of forbearance and
difference heavy-handed, but the show may seem too long to small
children.
Hans writing of the fairy tales have, as far known a meaning of
solitude. Defining them, fairy tales outline elements of
experience related to personal concerns, such as emotional
development, collateral with problems of self-identity, giving
voice to common experiences shared by one and all. It is part of
their omnipresent appeal. Yet, they can also be solely tuned to
the perspectives of difference, as well.
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In that, the story of "The Ugly Duckling," as such, is perhaps a
restorative metaphor, par excellence, charting a course through
the difficulties faced by individuals from many different
groups. The endeavors and drudgery of "The Ugly Duckling” may be
chiefly well suited to serve as a mirror for the experiences of
gay identity formation in men. Hans is the single-most
productive writer of fairy tales, ever. His stories have
fascinated young and old for over 160 years. Like "The Ugly
Duckling" many of Anderson's fairy tales mirror the life
experiences of gay men. Of course, for Anderson was a gay man
himself. So there is no such of a question of the conventional
family structure, but a new formed structure where there is
acceptance of a change in the family and a transition from
traditional to the neoteric.
"Some little children came into the garden with corn and pieces
of bread which they threw into the water, and the smallest one
cried out, 'There is a new one! A new one has come! And he is
the prettiest one of them all! And the old swans bent their
heads and did homage before him. The lilacs bent their boughs
right down into the water before him, and the bright sun was
warm and cheering. He rustled his feathers and raised his
slender neck aloft, saying with exultation in his heart, 'I
never dreamed of so much happiness when I was the Ugly
Duckling!"
Thus, "The Ugly Duckling" gives say to a strong vision,
symbolically representing the complete range of problems and
possibilities intrinsic in the understanding and treatment of
gay men. Legion in the gay community suggests that the solution
begin where the fairy tale as a matter of fact ends. By bringing
back and reintegrating a tradition to be found everywhere
present the possibility is that gay men will encounter the
limitless sense of joy which comes from an increased sense of
self, a deeper and more concluded experience of life, and, along
with it, a decrease in the self-destructive comportment still
apparent in segments of the gay community today. Surely, just
like the temporal that share the food of fairyland, one can
return transformed to such a mundane life again. Thus, Honk
gives a comparison when it addresses to the adult audience and
gives long duration for the children like the Ugly Duckling.
References
Anderson, Hans Christian, Andersen's Fairy Tales, transl. by
Mrs. E.V. Lucas and Mrs. H.B. Paull New York: Grosset & Dunlap.
Publishers, 1973
Moses, Tai. The Prodigal Duck, Cabrillo Stage's 20th anniversary
show dishes up a feast of barnyard puns, 2001
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