LIRA ELC 121

The Happy Prince

In the story The Happy Prince, the main character is the prince himself. This is mainly
considered so as the story entirely revolved around him. The story tells about the statue of the
happy prince that is covered in gold leaf, for eyes he has two bright sapphires and a large ruby on his
sword hilt that overlooks the miserable town. He regrets as he never realized the living conditions of
his people.
          To furthermore strengthen my reasoning for choosing the happy prince as the main character,
he shows the trait of a kind-hearted person. To support this, he insisted on asking the swallow to
give away the precious jewels from the statue to the people in need. As an example, he asked the
swallow to give a great ruby from his sword hilt to give out to the poor seamstress who was taking
care of her sick son, and only to mention a few. 
          Moreover, he shows humility. He wanted to make up for his mistakes in the past, as he let the
village live in poverty while he lived happily in his large and glamorous castle never wondering what
lies behind the castle walls. He makes up for his mistakes by sacrificing his beautiful features of the
statue in order to help the poor.
          In conclusion, these are the reasons why I believe that the happy prince is the main character
for this short story.

The little boy and girl in the clouds

In my honest opinion, the main character for the story The little boy and girl in the
clouds is the measuring worm. There are several reasons for this choice. The main factor
that influenced my choice is because the measuring worm is the bravest living thing in the
beautiful valley. To support this reasoning, when the little boy and girl fell asleep on top of
the magical big rock, every animal went and helped the parents to get their childrens off of
the big rock. And all had failed miserably, this is when the measuring worm decided to step
up and help them. He then started his journey to the top of the mountain all by himself
without the help of others guiding him.
          Other than that, I believe that the measuring worm is patient. This is because the
measuring worm moves at a very slow pace and climbing the magical big rock may take
forever for it to reach the top. But this never stopped him from attempting to save the little
boy and girl. As predicted, the measuring worm took a whole month to reach the top of the
magical rock, climbing day and night continuously. When the measuring worm finally
reached there, he woke the children up and painstakingly guided them down the big rock
again without hesitant.
          Moreover, the measuring worm was confident in himself and his abilities. The perfect
example for this, he was confident that he is able to climb the mountain despite his small
size. But this did not stop the measuring worm from trying his best to save the childrens
despite being made fun of by the other animals as he strongly believed that he was able to
save the little boy and girl. And because of this reason I strongly believe that the measuring
worm is the main character of this story.

In my honest opinion, The Happy Prince is a happy story. Yes, the story shows an
unjust way of living for the poor, but later in the story a massive turn of events occurred. The
reasoning behind this controversial statement is, after the demise of The Happy Prince, he
lives on as a statue and realizes that he was unaware of the living conditions of the poor. He
wanted to make things right by giving his precious jewelleries on his statue to give out to the
poor people. He wanted to help the people in need to make them happier.
 Other than that, the story shows that no matter how down we feel, there is always a
bright outcome in the end as every cloud has a silver lining. As an example, a match girl was
crying in the square worrying that her father will beat her for she had let her matches fall in
the gutters and is unable to bring home some money. Then the Happy Prince asked the
swallow to take out a precious sapphire from his right eye to give it to crying girl. The
swallow then gave the sapphire to the girl which she took and ran home laughing.
Moreover, the story displays the happy friendship that is bonded by The Happy Prince
and the swallow even though they both were sad in the beginning of the story. An example of
this is, after the swallow had given out the last sapphire from The Happy Prince's eyes, The
Happy Prince had gone blind. The swallow then decided to stay with the Happy Prince
despite him being insistent on leaving for Egypt where his companions are. These reasonings
obviously shows that the story a happy story after all.