What values do Andersen's fairy tales convey?

Andersen, who raised Danish literature to the level of world literature, wrote a lot of poems, novels, plays and travel notes in his life, and finally established his important position in the world literary world with 168 fairy tales, and was known as the "father of modern fairy tales". Zhou Zuoren introduced it to China in 19 13, and it has a history of one hundred years. Andersen weaves vivid stories with rich imagination, writes his concern for human suffering and respect for humble life with affectionate style, and his poetic fairy tales nourish the hearts of generations of Chinese children. As a classic of children's literature, readers of different times and contexts can find their own breakthrough point in Andersen's fairy tales. As Wang Quangen said: "Classics are eternal, and they are often read and always new. The same is true of the fairy tale art world created by Andersen. Andersen's fairy tales will be constantly read and accepted by young childlike innocence, and will also be constantly explained and deconstructed by young scholars instead of young scholars. "

Today, with the worsening ecological crisis, it is necessary to strengthen ecological awareness and build ecological civilization. Looking back at the beautiful fairy tales written by Andersen in the middle of19th century, we are still surprised to find that the ecological thoughts flashed in them are valuable resources for ecological education. The love and respect for all things in nature in his works is an ecological holism that is divorced from anthropocentrism. His contradictory attitude towards modern science and technology and industry implies his hidden worry about the lack of supervision of ecological consciousness, his criticism of desire and his return to simple natural life, which provides a fairy-tale guide for the loss of current life.

First, the non-anthropocentric view of life.

Today, people have reached a considerable consensus on the urgency of preventing environmental pollution and maintaining ecological balance. People are becoming more and more aware that "environmental problems are not only technical problems, but also that the speed at which science and technology provide resources (or eliminate pollution) is slower than that at which human beings consume resources (or create pollution). Technical problems are only superficial symptoms of environmental crisis. The essence of environmental problems is the issue of value orientation. "

Modern ecological science has proved that nature, including human beings, is organic, systematic, self-organized, pre-existing, objective and homogeneous. Therefore, non-anthropocentric ecological ethicists believe that human beings, as individuals in the life system, are not more noble in value than non-human. Nature, like human beings, is a dynamic subject, so it also has objective intrinsic value like human beings. Human beings, like non-human beings, are "protein Group's way of existence", so they also have inalienable natural value.

Andersen was born in a poor shoemaker's family in odense, Denmark. At the age of 14, he left his hometown to work hard in Copenhagen, the capital, and achieved a "fairy tale life". During this period, he experienced the world's coldness and vicissitudes, and had a profound experience and understanding of the survival, struggle and value of humble life. Therefore, in his fairy tales, he often uses affectionate style to describe those seemingly insignificant lives, their living environment, their joys and sorrows, their struggle for survival and their own ideal values.

For example, flax depicts the happy life of flax trees. When it is full of blue flowers, it is pulled up, kneaded into pulp, made into beautiful cloth and then cut into clothes. When the clothes turned into rags, turned into white paper to spread knowledge, and finally turned to ashes, they still sang "I am the happiest" happily, because it is a member of the world and has made contributions to the world. In contrast, the "fir tree" in "fir tree" is always full of regrets. When it grew up, it was cut down to make a Christmas tree. After Christmas, it was abandoned in the messy corner of the utility room and finally cut into firewood and burned to ashes. Only then did I understand the beauty of growing up in the Woods, the glory of decorating a Christmas tree, the joy of listening to my own stories, and the regret that I was unhappy when I was happy. Both sad fir trees and happy flax have their own unique values. We should affirm our own values and be happy. In fairy tales, the lives of these "micro-terminals" have been greatly respected, and their growth environment, life experience, psychological activities and value pursuit have been presented independently and completely. In Andersen's world, these tiny lives have their own unique values. As he said, "no life will be forgotten: every life will get a happiness that you can enjoy and suit yourself." Similarly, in "The Last Dream of the Old Oak", although the 365-year-old oak tree is towering into the sky and is recorded as a landmark by sailors, it still has no right to laugh at the ephemera with a life span of only one day. When it was uprooted by the storm on Christmas Eve, Andersen lamented that it fell, and its 365 years were like a flash in the pan.

In Green Little Things, Andersen criticized anthropocentrism more directly through the different ways that ants and people treat aphids. The story tells that delicate roses are dying because of aphids. "I" used soapy water to drive away aphids, but I heard aphids complain that people and ants treat aphids differently. Ants will move the eggs laid by aphids to their nests to protect them in the cold season. When the flowers bloom in spring, ants will send the hatched aphids to the green leaves. After aphids suck the juice of plants, they will produce "honey dew" containing a lot of sugar. Ants will even build nests for them and suck this "honey dew" to drive away ladybugs, the natural enemies of aphids. This story has basically presented the common phenomenon of mutual benefit and symbiosis between ants and aphids in biology. Almost from the standpoint of aphids, the whole article denounces that human beings take their own interests as the center and kill aphids with soapy water in order to enjoy the beauty of roses. The way is quite simple and rude, and they argue that God allows them to "have many children everywhere". In fact, aphids have exquisite organs that can produce milk and lay eggs and a poetic life. We should call them "Cow of Ants", "Rose Corps" or "Little Green Things". "There are children everywhere" is God's promise to mankind in Genesis, but since God has given aphids strong reproductive ability, aphids should also have their own values and reasons for existence. Out of the narrow anthropocentrism perspective, Anderson wants me to regard aphids as a link in the biological chain. From the human point of view, although it has neither aesthetic value nor even economic value, it is an ally of ants' mutual benefit and symbiosis, and it is also delicious for ladybugs, which has its inherent objective value. Modern ecology believes that everything in nature is a community of life, and everything is highly interdependent. Even the smallest creature is important to the whole natural economic system. Just as Gilbert White, the father of the world ecological history and the founder of modern British ecological thought, pointed out: "Earthworms are seemingly tiny and inconspicuous links in the natural chain, but if they are lost, they will lead to a sad break." [5]3 1 regards nature as the richest source of writing. Through careful observation of nature, Andersen discovered many life secrets with ecological significance. The article "Owl" tells that the little owl keeps trying to learn to fly and catch food because of being laughed at by an old song sung by a child, and finally gets the highest evaluation from ordinary owls-good at catching frogs and small snakes. Before flying to the Nile for the winter, the ostrich punished the child who loves to sing and laugh at himself in his own way, rewarded the good boy Peter who said "mocking animals is a sin" and named the ostrich Peter.

Interesting ecological knowledge can be learned through this story. Ostrich is a migratory bird, living in the Nile, mostly foraging for frogs, small snakes and other small animals in swamps or lakes and marshes. In summer, they will fly to northern Europe for the summer and nest and hatch on people's roofs. Ostrich is a kind of bird that Danish people are very familiar with. There are many legends in Denmark, which is also Andersen's favorite animal. Often appears in his fairy tales. In order to have enough skills and physical strength to cope with the long-distance migration flight, young ostriches must practice their flying and predation skills, otherwise they will face the tragic fate of the old songs sung by bad children, or they will be burned to death, hanged, dropped or killed, because as Leopold, the famous father of modern environmental protection, put forward, every creature is in a unified ecological pyramid, which is "composed of countless food chains, huge and huge." It seems that there is no order at all, but the stability of the whole system proves that it is a highly organized structure, and its operation is based on the cooperation and competition of all components. "[6] 199. In the long-term evolution process, ostriches internalize these survival rules into genetic codes, and ostrich generals peck at the chest of unqualified people in flight exercises. The warmest part of the story lies in the ostrich's different attitudes towards the two children, which reveals the correct way for people to get along with ostriches and nature. The bad boy's ridicule of ostriches symbolizes the arrogance and contempt for animals and nature under the anthropocentrism concept. Good boy Peter's "Mocking animals is a sin" represents the attitude that people should have to live in harmony with everything and is a good ecological education for children. There are many fairy tales in Andersen's works, such as Toad, Story of Thistle, Five Beans in a Pod, Mother Old Tree and so on. If we only understand it as a metaphor for human beings, it will be the limit of Andersen's fairy tale value and a misunderstanding of his non-anthropocentrism concept.

Second, sex and the elegy of the city.

In the middle of the 9th century, the first industrial revolution has spread from Britain to the European continent, and the capitalist system has been established one after another. Along with industrialization and urbanization, on the one hand, it brings the richness of material goods and the convenience of life, but it also brings a lot of toxic gases such as carbon dioxide, freon and carbon monoxide, and the air pollution is serious. With the increase of industrial land and the expansion of urbanization, a large number of animals and plants are on the verge of extinction, and the biological chain is destroyed, resulting in an ecological crisis. Moltmann, an ecological theologian, once admitted: "The ecological crisis in the modern world began in the modern industrial countries." [7]3 1 Capitalism takes the desire for profit as its spiritual essence and desire as the driving force for human development and progress. However, in limited nature and limited earth, human beings will inevitably pay a heavy ecological price. Today, the development of industry and science and technology without the supervision of ecological consciousness has caused human beings to suffer the consequences of ecological deterioration.

The protagonist of Tree Essence is an elf of chestnut tree. She grows freely in the countryside, nourished by fresh sunshine, air and rain, accompanied by birds, priests and children, but she yearns for the prosperous world of Paris, gets the opportunity to visit the exhibition in Paris at the expense of her life, and finally bursts and dies like a soap bubble. The background of the story is in the "fairy tale era" when steam engines can drive ships and trains forward. Mars Square in Paris is an industrial and artistic "Aladdin Palace", which is exhibiting the latest industrial and scientific achievements of all countries in the world. For these miracles of modern industry and technology, the author is not stingy when describing the prosperity brought by industry and technology. In Goddess of the New Age

My fairy tale life also pays tribute to the invention of modern science and technology and the "bloodless master" of the machine industry. Li Shujing has walked through this modern city, which is interwoven with countless steel, gas pipes and telegraph lines. Although she saw fish and flowers from all over the world, she saw magnificent buildings, soft carpets, women in strange clothes and lively dances, all of which were fleeting with the arrival of the day. Paris in the story is a symbol of "progress" and "prosperity" of the city after the industrial revolution, but it has been seriously polluted. Chestnut trees are substitutes for "uprooted old trees killed by soot, kitchen fumes and all the deadly smells in the city". Li Shujing's death also stems from her expanding desire. The story describes the process of her desire expansion. From the countryside to the square in Paris, from the fixed tree house to the tour in Paris, her desires were not satisfied. When she locked the door of her tree house and lost the key, it was doomed to her tragic ending. At the same time, the author set up a country girl Mary to correspond to Li Shujing. She dreamed of going to Paris to be a lady, but in the end she became a poor prostitute. Andersen lamented in the article: "God gave you a place to take root, but your demands and desires made you uproot it. Poor tree spirit, this has contributed to your demise! " [8] After all, the city is a harmful place, as the old priest said. On the surface, the article is full of praise for scientific and technological progress and urban civilization, but in essence, it denies the "fairy tale" of this era with the experience of Li Shujing and the little girl, and predicts that with the rapid development of science and technology and industrial production, human beings will peel off the close and harmonious relationship between nature and themselves, and poetic survival will never return. Today, industrialization and high-tech have given mankind great and terrible power to destroy the earth n times, and we have to marvel at how precious Andersen's discordant whine was in that fairy tale era.

The vicious prince is a fable with a terrible ending due to the expansion of desire. After conquering the whole world, the prince in the story wanted to conquer God, but he was finally conquered by a little gnat sent by God. The prince's desire can be said to be a symbol of the infinite expansion of human desire to the extreme. Although he relied on advanced technology to build a spaceship that can fly in the air, can shoot thousands of bullets, can turn steel into lightning, and can take a huge army into the sky, he still can't conquer God's air fortress. Developed science and technology, if kidnapped by endless desires, can only bring people the destruction of life and their own destruction. Today, in order to satisfy unlimited desires, human beings have created a "growth addiction culture" and followed the development model of unlimited growth and economic priority. But the earth is limited, and its ability to withstand human activities is limited. Rome Club, an environmental protection organization that successfully predicted the oil crisis and climate warming, warned people: "If the world population, industrialization, pollution, food production and resource consumption continue to remain unchanged according to the current growth trend, the economic growth of this planet will reach its limit at some point in the future 100." [9] 12 Historian Toynbee and others have also pointed out: "In the lifestyle of so-called developed countries, greed is regarded as a virtue, but I think that in a society that allows greed to wreak havoc, there is no hope for the future. Greed without self-control can lead to self-destruction. " [10] (57) So in the middle of19th century, when people were still worshipping Faust's great spirit and the great power of reclaiming land from the sea, Andersen expressed his deep doubts with the disappearance of "tree essence". Behind his cautious suspicion is the basic consensus in our environmental protection concept today. The development and progress brought by science and technology and industry are of course important, but if we lack the ecological concept and can't let life live, it will eventually bring more serious disasters to people.

Third, poetic dwelling in the wilderness.

Today, when philosophy turns to wilderness, the multiple values of wilderness "the least disturbed or undeveloped region and ecosystem" [1 1] 107 have been accepted by more and more people, and the first thing is that "wilderness is the original foundation and motivation of life we can experience in the phenomenal world." [12]242 is therefore an important place to cultivate people's sensitivity to natural ecology and study the natural ecological process, and it is also an important description object of ecological writers. Andersen regards tourism as Medea's refreshing and youthful drink, and he likes nature and wilderness swamps very much. In his biography "My Fairy Tale Life", he repeatedly mentioned his concern for the wilderness during his travels. /kloc-in the summer of 0/830, when he traveled to Jutland, he wrote: "But I don't know what this summer's trip will bring to my life, or what will happen to my heart. I just want to see the wilderness of jutland, and if possible, meet gypsy families there. " [13]85 1840 when he went to Italy for the second time, he also mentioned that "I visited the beautiful Holstein and saw the wilderness and swamp with bushes." [13]226 Andersen's "The Daughter of the King of Marshes" once described the marshes in northern jutland, Denmark, which was a wild world and primitive land that had not been drained by human beings and turned into farmland or construction sites. Helga, the heroine in the story, is the daughter of an Egyptian princess. When she flew to the swamp in northern Europe to save her dying father, she fell into the swamp and gave birth to the king of the swamp. She was raised by the wife of the badger bird who gave it to the pirate head. Because Helga was enchanted, she was a beautiful, violent and cruel woman during the day, and at night she became an ugly, docile and kind toad. In the process of helping him escape, Helga was influenced by Christian priests and converted to God. The spell was broken and she became a beautiful, docile and pious girl. After successfully rescuing her mother, she picked the lotus and flew back to Egypt to bring the king back to life. The religious implication of the story is self-evident, and the relationship between man and the wilderness swamp can not be ignored. Helga is the daughter of the swamp king, suggesting that human beings are the sons of the wilderness. Without the care and support of the wilderness, there would be no profound meaning of human birth and existence.

To be saved, Egyptian princesses and kings need to believe in God, return to the origin of mankind and understand the true meaning of life. From the historical map of life on earth, "wilderness is the root of our life, our route and our destination."

The story of Dune proves to readers that in Andersen's eyes, a life far away from hubbub, back to the wilderness, primitive and simple, and minimizing the interference with nature will be the most poetic and close to the spirit. You Ergen, the hero of the story, is a descendant of a Spanish nobleman. Because his shipwrecked parents were buried at the bottom of the sea, he was adopted and raised by a couple of fishermen who lived on sand dunes by the sea. He grew up in EULAN SPA0 1, which consists of sand dunes, wasteland, marshes and bays. When flying sand and snow hit, houses made of broken boats may be buried, and people mainly make a living by fishing. When he was a sailor, he had been to big cities in the south. The big city he saw was: "The houses are so high, the streets are so narrow and the people are so crowded! Some people crowded here, others crowded there-just like a big hive composed of citizens and farmers, monks and soldiers-crying, donkeys and mules ringing, church bells mixed together; Singing drums, chopping wood and knocking at sixes and sevens, because craftsmen's factories in every industry are at conscious doors or steps. The sun shines so hot and the air is so stuffy that people seem to have walked into a stove full of buzzing beetles, scarabs, bees and flies. "

Although he was imprisoned because he was wronged in the sand dunes, it didn't remind him to change and live in the big southern city where his parents lived. When he came to Skagen, a peaceful, friendly, desolate and simple land of sand dunes, he fell in love with his master's daughter Krana. Later, he was knocked into an idiot in a shipwreck to save Clara from drowning. Finally, he and his beloved girl were buried in the church by quicksand. Perhaps the big cities in the south have delicious fruits, fiery pomegranate flowers, marble-carved mansions and huge wealth, but You Ergen has chosen to live a simple life in the cold and desolate northern sand dunes, where there is the best air, flying back to swans at sea, and blooming heather elderberry and bodhi trees in beautiful summer. Although it is a wilderness world composed of sand dunes, wasteland and swamps, You Ergen's simple and primitive life without being enslaved by material desires has been greatly affirmed by Andersen. At the end of the story, he turned the sacred church into the graveyard of You Ergen, and the tower became the beautiful tombstone of You Ergen, and the graveyard was covered with hawthorn and rose trees.

For Christian Andersen, this is the best ending he can think of. Perhaps You Ergen's dune life, like Thoreau's seclusion by Walden Lake, is a utopia accustomed to the convenience and comfort that modern people can't reach. However, it is not only a compromise and measure to restrain the desire of simple life and feel the charm of the wilderness through ecotourism, but also an effective way for us to practice environmental protection in the era of ecological crisis.

Therefore, at the moment when the ecological crisis is getting worse, ecological education should start with children, guide them to love and respect all life, get close to nature, understand the ecological process, protect the environment and lead a simple life, so that they can finally assume the ecological responsibility that human beings should bear. Andersen created a lush life world with colloquial children's language and magnificent fantasy, where there are a lot of beautiful flowers, trees, insects, fish, birds and animals with Nordic characteristics. He explained the ups and downs, happiness and sadness of their free life with vivid style, full of simple and rich ecological thoughts, which is a valuable resource for us to carry out ecological education for children.