It’s not about gold, kingdom, servants and followers. It’s about the perfect quality, nature and attitude of a princess.
A princess is not someone rich with tiaras, crowns, luxuries; but a princess is someone with a kind heart ,serene behavior and a motivational capacity .A princess is not what she looks from outside but what she is inside .Frances Hodgson Burnett conveyed this message combined with many others in the touching story of Sara Crewe- a little princess.
She should have been arrogant, foppish, haughty and dominating. Her father a captain was a rich man who provided h0er with fine clothes, expensive toys and taught her in a reputed school where she had innumerable comforts including her own playroom . Her father gifted her attractive presents. But she had obtained special gifts from god; a beautiful heart, sharp brain , vivid imagination-all these that made a girl never created before .Her impressive manners ,calm voice, willingness to help and make others happy, capacity to soothe a hysterical girl and lovingness towards the shy ones won her the goodwill all around her.
It was her birthday –supposed to be one of the best days of her life that turned out to be the worst .Her father died leaving no property behind. She turned from a princess into a pauper. Her headmistress deprived her of all the basic necessities, placed her in a damp, cold attic and made a servant out of her.
But Sara’s character was so strong that even in the adverse time she remained the same princess inside. She was scowled, shouted at, ordered about . But she stayed calm, her manners consistent. Even though her stomach rumbled she gave the buns that were more precious possession at the time of her crisis to another poor girl. That displays her true princess like character.
Sara was the princess who was helped by a fairy godmother or pixies but one whose imagination lightened her sorrow. It was the magic in her heart that made her a princess in the appearance of a pauper.
The book A Little Princess is a must a read for teens, kids as well as adults .Sara’s nature will enable us to rethink about ourselves. Most go through a phase of short-temperedness and depression. The story will raise certain questions. Are our troubles so enormous than we consider them to be? Don’t we tend to become unhappy because of petty issues? Her story will teach a lesson to live happily spread happiness be optimistic and benevolent. Sara Crewe although a normal human was magical and will surely leave some of her magic in our hearts.