Aaron Liu
Finding Nemo: A Loss of Innocence Throughout the movie, Finding Nemo, Marlin has to endure a myriad of hardships and obstacles in order to save his son. Because of this journey, Marlin also goes through many changes in attitude. Marlin’s first real loss of “innocence” occurred in the opening scene. It begins with Marlin and Coral admiring their new home and their abundance of eggs. Marlin is friendly, loving, and appears to be carefree; the exact opposite of his personality throughout the rest of the movie. Unfortunately, a barracuda attacks, knocking Marlin unconscious and killing Coral and all but one of the eggs. Marlin ends up naming the egg, Nemo, a name that his wife liked. Therefore, a main character’s loss of “innocence” is through a devastation of fantasy as it encounters a cruel reality. The opening scene showed the origins of Marlin’s worrisome and fearful personality. Before his loss, Marlin seemed carefree and cheerful, however due to the harshness of reality, he transforms into a stranger. Because of the barracuda attack, Marlin realizes the numerous amounts of potential disasters. However, his last surviving child is what pulls him together and we can see that Marlin especially treasures Nemo because it is also a representation of his wife. Furthermore, the camera zoomed in on the cracking of the last egg. When Marlin notices that the egg is damaged, he vows to protect Nemo and wraps his fins around the egg, foreshadowing his overprotective personality. Few years later, it is Nemo’s first day of school and Marlin starts the day with lectures about the dangers of the real world. Clearly, this is an extremely different Marlin from the cheerful clownfish we see in the beginning. Marlin’s harsh reality allows the audience to sympathize with him. Although I also feel alienated from the characters true personality, I can understand why