The Inverted Tale of The Ugly Duckling

Once upon a time, beyond the seven seas at a farm did a mother duck lay her eggs waiting for them to hatch. No sooner did the mother sit on her eggs than some of the eggs cracked open one by one. So cute and fluffy their bright yellow feathers were that the mother duck was astonished. Just as in a utopian story might one expect, all the ducklings were gorgeous, except for one duckling. Little did the readers of the story know what was about to happen. A little longer did it take for an awkward-looking grey dickling (shit that is a typo xddd!) to come into the world. Barely did he resemble his siblings and immediately became the target of his golden counterparts. You might have already been told that never before has a duckling been born with grey feathers. Accordingly, the rest of the gang started to bully the odd one and mocked him for the way he looked. “Look at that weirdo, we should treat him so!” said one of his golden-feathered siblings. Such aversion did the majority of the gang feel towards the grey one that they even displayed a xenophobic attitude towards him. Not only did they ridicule him, but they also discriminated against him solely based on the colour of his darker feathers.

Unable to endure the social exclusion, the little duckling had to encounter, he finally decided to run away from his “family” (!!). Subsequently, several attempts did he make to establish emotional bonds with other animals, nevertheless they also teased him and turned down his initiatives, just as his siblings would do to him. Only after even more rejections did he realize that he also had to combat adverse weather conditions. Even more miserable did the little duckling feel about his own life, when he started to ruminate on what exactly he had done wrong: “To quack or not to quack – whether ‘tis nobler in the farm to suffer the pecks and mockery of outrageous ducklings.” asked the duckling himself. Then, rarely did he step out of his shelter for the next couple of months.

One day, into the lake did a group of majestic swans come and the little duckling admired how beautiful they looked. In fact, some kind of role models did he consider them feeling unworthy to join their gang. Not until he gazed at the surface of the water did he finally come to appreciate that he was not a monstrous creature at all. Basically, he was not even a duck, but a majestic swan, instead. Upon realizing that he was not odd but rather unique, he immediately swam closer to the swans and joined their acquaintance. A part of the “swanfluencers” did he become, and he felt he had just arrived at the right time.

You might wonder! Such were the reactions of his former siblings when he returned to where he originally came from, and all were astonished by his stunning appearance. So envious did his former bullies become that they painted themselves green with envy, hoping to achieve the same transformation. Barely could they believe that a once grotesque-looking bird ultimately transformed into a swan. I guess through the means of metamorphosis.

The story of The Ugly Duckling perfectly epitomizes that under no circumstances should we judge a book by its cover. Had this been not the case, the duckling’s perseverance could not have led him to his own self-discovery no matter what life threw at him.