Teachings of the Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen

They say that Hans Christian Andersen was the son of a shoemaker and a washerwoman and this marked him forever. That humble origin allowed him to make contact with the chiaroscuro of society and with those deepest recesses of the human being. During a period of his life he even had to beg, something that made it easier for him to find shelter in his imagination to escape that unfortunate reality.

An avid reader and gifted with exceptional artistic ability, he managed to publish his first poem when he was just over twenty years old. That piece was titled: The dying child. Hardship, heartbreak and adversity were elements that structured much of his work. And it was so because his existence navigated for a certain time through the ocean of lack and sadness.

Andersen’s classic tales have been subtly altered over time with a single goal. Make them kinder and sweeten stories that sought to offer in the past a message that, perhaps, the children of the last two centuries are not prepared to receive. The Tin Soldier is one of those stories that is worth recovering to reveal the teachings it contains.

The story of the tin soldier reminds us that we cannot always act on our destiny.

The tale of the brave little tin soldier

The tin soldier came into the life of a child in a cardboard box with twenty-four other brothers. They were all brave soldiers, with perfect shapes and beautiful colors. However, he had a defect: he was missing a leg. Those figurines had been cast from an old tin spoon, but when it came time to mold it, there was barely enough material left.

The stay in that home was happy for a time. All the little soldiers were placed around a cardboard castle, at the door of which stood a beautiful dancer made of paper. Our protagonist was fascinated by her, to such an extent that her cold tin heart instantly beat for her. The infatuation was immediate, especially because he believed that that girl was missing a leg like him.

Although those days of harmony did not last long. On one occasion, the boy left him on a window sill, with such bad luck that a gust of wind blew him into the street.. The boy, eager to get it back, did not hesitate to go out and look for it. He came to step on it, but the little soldier, stoic as anyone, didn’t even scream. In the end, he stayed there for a while, until other kids in the neighborhood found him by chance…

The unfortunate adventures of the imperturbable little soldier

The children who found the hapless tin soldier devised a plan: build a paper boat and sail it down a stream that the rain had formed in the street. That’s how it was, but with such bad luck that ended up slipping down a cold, dark sewer. In that underground world, a rat asked for a toll; no one could pass through there without paying first.

But there was no time, the current of water was very strong and almost without knowing how, the little soldier found himself dragged into a river. Over there, He encountered a new and unexpected adversity: a fish ended up swallowing him. That seemed to be the end of the little lead man, but fate, capricious and also magical, wanted that same fish to serve as dinner for the family of the child to whom it belonged. He had returned home, to his home, with her beautiful dancer and her twenty-four siblings.

However, as was recurring in the life of our protagonist, happiness lasted a sigh. At one point, the boy threw him into the fireplace fire for no apparent reason.. The tin soldier didn’t know what was happening… Why was he melting? Was it because of love? As if that were not enough, a gust of air carried the paper dancer next to him, instantly being consumed under the flames.

The next day, Among the remains of the embers and ash, they found a heart cast in lead.

The story of the little soldier is a sad story of stoicism in the face of adversity.

What lessons can we obtain?

Throughout the multiple publications of this story by Hans Christian Andersen, it is common to see how the title is changed. Sometimes it is simply The lead soldierothers The brave little tin soldier and others, the Unbreakable little lead soldier. These constant variations are due, above all, to one question… Is the protagonist of this story a brave character? We analyze it.

When we are swept away by a destiny we cannot control

The little soldier does not even have the opportunity to be brave, he limits himself to facing everything that the future brings him. In fact, something that catches our attention about this story is that no event is the result of his own action or inaction. Fate rules, it is chance and fate that traces each event that drags him here and there without him being able to do anything to avoid it.

This may catch our attention. After all, he is a tin soldier… Wouldn’t he be destined for combat, for fighting and confrontation? Not in this case. Not in the Hans Christian Andersen story. One of the lessons we learn is that, in life, there is not always the possibility or the opportunity to be brave or to act.

Pain tolerance and the mechanism of acceptance

The tin soldier is an example of stoicism. He not only accepts his destiny, he not only assumes every fatality, every misfortune and chaotic coincidence. He does not react, accepts each circumstance and does not choose to ask for help. An example of this is when the child comes to step on it while she is looking for him outside the house. Hans Christian Andersen tells us that he could have screamed, but he chooses not to react or ask for help.

The character in this story is an example of the difficult art of acceptance in the midst of a most adverse context.

Limitations are not always the reason for our misfortunes

The first thing we discover in Andersen’s story is that the protagonist has a limitation: he is missing a leg. There was no lead left when they melted it down, so the little man is different from his regiment mates. However, does this fact determine the vicissitudes to which he is subjected? Absolutely.

His limp neither hinders him nor acts as an advantage. A soldier with two legs would have gone through the same thing. That is to say, Many of the defects we believe we have, in reality, have no impact on what happens to us.

What remains is our essence

The outcome of this story is sad, we cannot deny it. However, beyond the unease it leaves us with, let’s analyze what Andersen wanted to leave us as a message. The death of the tin soldier symbolizes a spiritual rebirth, the one in which its true essence remains, that of love.

Beyond everything that happens to us, the rumor of fatalities, each person must always preserve that which gives them strength, meaning and transcendence. Affection is that indestructible material that must always persist.

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