The Last Dream of Old Oak by Hans Christian Andersen

The Last Dream of Old Oak

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by Hans Christian Andersen

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Table of Contents

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Learning Goals

About the Story

The Author

The setting

Genre, Themes, Symbolism

The Plot

The Characters

The Story

Activities

Credits

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Learning Goals

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Identify and enjoy features of classic literature.

Analyze interactions among discourse elements that constitute a genre.

Acquire vocabulary and grammar structures in context.

Develop higher order thinking skills to spot clues, make inferences, think critically and draw conclusions to pose arguments in answer to writing and speaking prompts.

Engage in individual and collaborative group work in integrated language skills.

About the Story

The Last Dream of the Old Oak Tree is a children's fantasy story by Hans Christian Andersen first published in 1858.It is a story of the seasons of life that ends on a note of hope and gratitude.
The Last Dream of Old Oak was featured as The Short Story of the Day on Tue, Nov 28, 2017

The Last Dream of Old Oak is a featured selection in the collection of Christmas Stories, Short Stories for Middle School II, and Children's Stories

Source : https://americanliterature.com/

The Author

ans Christian Andersen, born in Denmark in 1805, practically invented the writing of eventyrs; the adventure fairy tale, or fantastic tale. Although he wrote a broad range of work, including plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, it was his fairy tales that became culturally iconic in the Western world. His tales transcend age barriers, national and cultural boundaries and have been translated into more than 125 languages. Many of his stories are featured in the collection of Favorite Fairy Tales.
His stories have inspired countless plays, ballets, and movies. Who hasn't read or seen an animated movie adaptation of Thumbelina (1835), The Emperor's New Clothes (1837), The Little Mermaid (1836), and The Princess and the Pea (1835?)
Andersen also blessed us with one of the saddest but most poignant and beautiful Christmas stories of all time, The Little Match Girl (also known as The Little Matchstick Girl).
Andersen has a number of exemplary, lesser known stories, worthy of your attention and offered right here on American Literature.com.
In 1847 on his first visit to Britain, Andersen met Charles Dickens. Both authors focused on the poor and underprivileged, tales of transcendence to a better life through hard work, guts, and good fortune.
Andersen's stories laid the groundwork for other children's classics. Andersen was a master writer whose work and themes have been emulated throughout time, and through a broad spectrum of platforms.
Andersen died on August 4, 1875 in Copenhagen, having never fully recovered from an injury he sustained after falling out of his bed two years earlier.

The Setting

The last dream of the old oak is based in Ireland across the seasons and in reflection all the lifespan of the Oak.

Genre, Themes and Symbolism

It is a Christmas tale.
The theme is love, sympathy,happiness . resilience, and fulfilment despite the transient nature of existence.
The Oak Tree is a symbol of knowledge, wisdom, strength, stability, power, love , commitment ,honor, nobility,protection, healing and long life. It supports different aspects of beings of whatever kind and status from birth to death, Its anthropomorphic dimension makes it a personification of energy animating the earth. The life of the tree represents the controlled energies necessary for evolution, cyclic progression and the world of phenomena, of appearing and disappearing in sublunary world. The storm represents a tower moment that precedes the carol as a symbol of the redemptive nature of Christ's love and the promise of eternal life and all what is royal and solid.

The Plot

The story opens with old oak tree expressing sympathy for the Ephemeras' short lives. The fly counters by explaining that they both have just one life and the difference is simply in the way it is measured; the fly measuring moments, the tree measuring years.

It is a task to be completed by students after they listen to the story and read it comprehensively.