A Boy's Journey - New Curriculum Recommended Reading - Classic Must-Read for Young Apple Readers

Author: Hector Malot
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: Le Petit Poucet (The Little Match Girl) depicts the story of a poor, abandoned child named Lumi who wanders around, enduring various hardships and sorrows of life, and eventually meets his biological mother. The abandoned infant Lumi, adopted by a kind-hearted rural woman, is sold to an Italian traveling performer named Uncle Pidas for forty francs due to his foster father's extreme poverty. From then on, Lumi faces countless dangers and sufferings. First, Uncle Pidas passes away, then the gardener family that adopted him meets misfortune. He nearly dies in a coal mine tunnel and is even arrested and imprisoned in London. However, he finally meets his biological mother and marries the daughter of the gardener, living a happy life. We can see that no matter how tragic the circumstances are, whether enduring hunger or facing life and death, Lumi never complains about his fate or blames others, always maintaining a pure and compassionate heart. Yet, the society at that time still mercilessly crushed this poor child. This is closely related to the European society of the time when Malot lived. Since 1830, the Industrial Revolution in Europe developed rapidly, giving rise to many profound social issues. With steam engines as the driving force, labor became simpler, and workers became slaves to machines.