“The Ugly Duckling” is a fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen in 1844. Although it is nearly 200 years old, the story is still one of the most popular told in modern culture . Hans Christian Andersen experienced a childhood of poverty and abandonment, growing up in his father's shoe shop. He told critics of his time that the story reflected his life and was why he wrote it, he described the story as his "autobiography" (Sklenar, D., n.d.). On a hot summer day on a farm, a mother duck incubates her eggs, and while most of her ducklings are normal, one duckling is gray, large and doesn't fit in with the others. The other ducks and chickens made fun of him. His mother tries to accept him, but realizes that he simply doesn't belong to him. Driven by teasing and the feeling that no one wanted or loved him, he ran away from the farmyard to find a place where he would be accepted (Andersen, HC, 1844). In his search, the ugly duckling meets an old woman, who shelters him in her little house, but her cat and his chicken make fun of him and he runs away again. He wanders all summer and autumn, but no one accepts him. He almost freezes in a frozen pond when he is rescued by a farmer, but is scared and runs away. At the end of winter he is surprisingly still alive. He comes to a pond where beautiful white swans swim and is attracted by their beauty. He decides to approach them because he thought it would be better to be killed by such beautiful birds than to live a life of ugliness and misery. To his surprise, the beautiful creatures welcome him and accept him. Look at his reflection in the water to see that he too is a beautiful swan (Andersen, HC, 1844). The duckling wished to be as beautiful as a swan, but what's in the middle of the paper? ....transmitted from one generation to another through the collective unconscious (Janaro, RP, & Altshuler, TC, 2012). The ugly duckling archetype is known as an underdog. The loser is the character who always seems to be at a disadvantage. The Ugly Duckling, for example, was chosen for all the wrong reasons. At the end of the story, the ugly duckling managed to overcome difficulties and earn respect. This archetype works best when the reader can identify with the underdog character (Janaro, RP, & Altshuler, TC, 2012). On the surface, "The Ugly Duckling" is a story from the life of Hans Christian Andersen and how he himself felt. as he faces the challenges of his life. But, in reality, readers can identify with the hardships endured by the duckling. Furthermore, by having patience for the future and better things to come, we too will realize the beauty of what we can become.