The Child
catalyst · human
The one person on that street with no office, no reputation and nothing at all to lose.
What they are like
- Kind
- 8/10
- Brave
- 5/10
- Clever
- 5/10
- Honest
- 10/10
- Curious
- 10/10
- Patient
- 3/10
How we meet them
Halfway through the procession, from behind, standing on a barrel because she is too short to see. The story has no interest in her until she speaks and none afterwards.
Personality
Not brave, not clever, not wise. Interested. She says what she sees in the same voice she would use for a dog or a cart.
What they want
To see the procession, which is why she was lifted up in the first place.
How they change
Says one sentence. Does not know what it does. Is still on the barrel when the whole street is repeating it.
How they speak
One sentence, with no adjectives in it. She is the only character in the tale who describes what is actually in front of her.
How the story treats them
Her father calls her an innocent, loudly, which is a grown man using a five-year-old as cover. Then he repeats what she said.
One surprising thing
Andersen never says whether the child is a boy or a girl. The original simply says a little child, and then mentions the father. Making her a girl is our choice, not his.
If they were real today
The new person on their second day, asking why everyone does it that way.
Things they say
- “But he hasn't got anything on.”
Key moments
Lifted onto a barrel
She is put up on a barrel at the front so that she can see over the heads of the crowd, which is the only reason she gets a clear view at all.
The sentence
She says the obvious thing in an ordinary voice, and the street goes quiet in a small circle around her before it starts up again much louder.
“But he hasn't got anything on.”
Who they know
The Emperorstranger
They never speak to one another. She says one sentence about him, in an ordinary voice, and he hears it and agrees with it and keeps walking.
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