The Little Match Girl

by Hans Christian Andersen

The Little Match Girl: Style 1 key example

Style
Explanation and Analysis:

Andersen’s writing style in “The Little Match Girl” features an expressive narrator and the frequent use of imagery. The following passage—which comes as the little match girl experiences a magical vision after lighting one of her matches—contains both of these elements of Andersen’s style:

How strange! It seemed that the match had become a big iron stove with brass fixtures. Oh, how blessedly warm it was! She stretched out her legs so that they, too, could get warm, but at that moment the stove disappeared and she was sitting alone with a burned-out match in her hand.