...“The first myths of mermaids may have originated around 1000 B.C. — stories tell the tale of a Syrian goddess who jumped into a lake to turn into a fish, but her great beauty could not be changed and only her bottom half transformed. Since then, many other mermaid stories have appeared in folklore from various cultures around the world. For instance, the African water spirit Mami Wata is mermaid in form, as is the water spirit Lasirn, who is popular in folklore in the Caribbean Islands” (Castro). The Aquatic Ape Theory explains why humans, unlike any other ape species, has lost its hair, walks upright, talks and has a large brain, through living in an aquatic environment, foraging for marine food. The suggestion is that our ape ancestors, millions of years ago, came down from trees and began to forage for food, like shellfish and seaweed on beaches or wade in the shallows. When wading, an ape is forced to stand upright, so evolution would favor apes who are better able to do this, as they are more able to stand upright in the water, gathering food, for a longer time. If an ape becomes used to standing upright in the water, they may also begin to do the same on land, where they find this has an advantage. It would certainly be beneficial to mothers with newborns who will find they have their arms free to carry their child and even feed it at her breasts while she is walking. Also by standing upright she is able to carry marine food, in her hands, from the shallows to land...
Words: 568 - Pages: 3
...Briana Hernandez 1/17/2013 Mythology Mermaids Well, the million dollar question here is: Why would you pick mermaids as your topic? To be perfectly honest, I picked it because...Why not? Mermaids are something that has always been a part of my life. (As strange as that may sound) But it’s true. Mermaids are just something I’ve always been around. They are these magical beings of the sea. They are beautiful. They are amazing and everyone wants to see one. I LOVE MERMAIDS. There. I said it…I love mermaids. I remember being a little girl and watching The Little Mermaid with my older sister and thinking, ‘Wow. This is beautiful.’ This movie really was where it started. I think for a lot of people, it began with this movie. This movie showed mermaids in this light of being beautiful and being able to love. As a child, this is a pretty cool thing. It feeds the wonder and innocence of a child. But that gets killed and shot down upon the arrival of Middle School. But that’s another story. Mermaids have always been something of wonder. Though I’m an eighteen year old college bound girl, I still keep that child-like sense of innocence alive. We really don’t know what there is in the sea. Most of it is unexplored because of the dangerous environments. The ocean is something of marvel, yet instills fear in me. I’m afraid of the ocean. I don’t like to look out onto the beach and see never ending water. I could never go on a cruise. It seems like an irrational...
Words: 1342 - Pages: 6
...The Little Mermaid is an example of how woman were seen in society. In the fairy tale, women are characterized by appearance rather than personality by both men and women. The little mermaid mentions “But if you take my voice, what shall I have left?”. In this quote, the little mermaid believes that she cannot just be herself to win the prince’s heart. The prince also looks at women the same way because of how he talks to the little mermaid. He asks her, “You’ve no fear of the sea, have you, my dumb child?”. He treats her as if she is still a small child just because she cannot speak. The tone helps shape the whole story into a feminist piece. Anderson relays the moral of the story for women in a cautionary tone to make them realize the message that is being said. The little mermaid gave up everything for the prince, and in the end, she paid a terrible price for it. Hans Christian Anderson’s writes her story The Little Mermaid in a cautionary tone with the usage of imagery and characterization to symbolize a feminist work of literature. The little mermaid’s grandmother demonstrates how appearance rules over personality. In the story, they characterized women in such a way that good looks are everything. When the little mermaid asked if the humans liked mermaids, the grandmother said, “They very thing that’s so beautiful here in the sea, your fish’s tail, seems ugly to people on the earth; they know so little about it that they have to have two clumsy supports called legs, in...
Words: 340 - Pages: 2
...of the Ocean Mermaids are legends that have been among us for years; moreover, to understand the legends, one must look at their history, their mystical powers and their distinct descriptions. Mermaids, Mermen, and Merbabys are making more of an appearance in our waters than they ever have. These mystical creatures are swimming back into our world. Mermaids originated from aquatic ape’s years ago when dinosaurs still roamed our earth. As Tim Chaffey stated, “Our supposed ape-like ancestors started living near the oceans, and the narrator informs viewers that “this is where our advanced intelligence began to develop” thanks to the “brain-building nutrients” like iodine and fatty acids so abundant in the shellfish gathered there,”...
Words: 889 - Pages: 4
...little mermaid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid#cite_note-5 Upon reading the original story of Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid”, the love between the little mermaid and the prince can reflect the author’s love to someone who was going to get married at that time. In the story , little mermaid asked for the Sea Witch for exchanging her beautiful voice for her two legs to dance with the prince . From this scene, the author wants to highlight the love’s sacrifice and how love is so important to change one’s values and beliefs . The author utilizes little mermaid’s impossible yet touching love with the prince to represent human’s love ---love can be an ultimate power to make oneself to sacrifice. Yet , from the little mermaid ‘s love with the prince and how she still danced with the prince despite the suffering excruciating pain, we can interpret some messages from daily lives .Take shark fin soup as an example , while we enjoy drinking the shark fin soup during traditional Chinese weddings , we have sidestepped the painful feelings when the sharks’fins were torn off before being dumped back to the sea .Not only sharks , but elephants and tigers do love humans even we know or don’t know .Indeed , they are like the little mermaid , sacrificing their body parts to fulfill the happiness of human and this is one of my insights after reading this story. Although the love between the animals and humans isn’t as same as the love between the little mermaid and the...
Words: 677 - Pages: 3
...Lit Theory In The Little Mermaid The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson is very different to the familiar Disney version, but something that they both have in common is the underlying idea of feminism. Both versions are mainly about women and the male characters have to depend on these women to save their lives. The main character is female and so is the villain and both, in their own way, have a lot more power than the men in the story. A main observation that supports feminism in The Little Mermaid is that there are almost no male characters in the story. There is a sea king who is the little mermaid’s father but he is only mentioned. The only male character that has even the slightest meaning to the story is the prince that the mermaid falls in love with and he’s not really developed as a character at all. He’s really just there for plot purpose, and it’s the little mermaid and the sea witch that actually have a personality. Another point of feminism is the fact that the women in the story have all the power. This is first observed in the fact that the king of the sea is mentioned but it is his mother that has an actual role and gives words of wisdom to the main character which sets off the entire plot. Then there is the little mermaid herself. First she demonstrates her power by rescuing the prince from drowning, usually it’s the prince that has to rescue the princess but here it was the other way around. Also she has all of these hopes and dreams of becoming...
Words: 612 - Pages: 3
...The 1836 book "The Little Mermaid", by Hans Christian Andersen, and it's Disney adaptation have many similarities and differences. Both are from the viewpoint of a young mermaid who wants to know more about the world above her. The mermaid then saves a prince and falls in love with him. In order to be with him, she trades her voice for legs. In the Hans Christian Andersen book, her transition from tail to legs is excruciating while the movie is painless. In the movie, Ariel has to get the prince to kiss her in three days or Ursula, the Sea Witch, will turn her into a polyp. When the Little Mermaid finds out she can get an immortal soul, that is sufficient enough for her to acquire legs, even though she could die in the process. The book ends...
Words: 798 - Pages: 4
...In the movie, The Little Mermaid there are mermaids that live in the ocean. One of the Mermaids is a daughter of the king. She wants to explore the world whereas her dad, King Triton, does not like the ground world. Ariel falls in love with a prince on land and begins to go on dry land more often. The main setting is in/by the ocean. The little Mermaid would sound different with no words. Insted there would be certain instruments that would the main role in sound during the scenes instead. The music in The Little Mermaid would be tropical. They would do this by using steel pan drums. They would use this because the steel drums make a tropical sound. This would be when ariel is underwater with her family and everything is...
Words: 353 - Pages: 2
...the Little Mermaid by:Brandie Tittsworth Jm0300776 When I young, I liked to pretended I was Ariel from The Little Mermaid. I hopelessly dreamt of finding my prince charming. I sang and danced to the songs, and loved the thought of the castle in the ocean, or a secret cave with items from shipwrecks. Watching the same story later in life with my own children I can without a doubt say that Ariel could be a role model for not only me but my daughter also in the way she stays true to who she is. Her character is one of open-mindedness, strength and abundant love. Throughout her story, Ariel is faced with opposition and obstacles that force her to define and think about who she is. King Tritan and the rest of the water creatures try to push and mold Ariel into what they feel is "customary." The story of The Little Mermaid is one of Ariel defying the idea of what is right, what is normal, and what is supposed to be. A significant way of social interpellating an individual is by ostracizing the union or marriage between people with noticeable differences. Society praises when the usual path is chosen, whether it is a marriage between woman and man, or the relationship between two people of the same race. The central motif or theme of The Little Mermaid, which appears in many children's stories, is that of two people of different backgrounds overcoming obstacles and falling in love. Ariel, a mermaid, and Eric,...
Words: 1213 - Pages: 5
...Internal Struggles of Andersen’s The Little Mermaid Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid is a tale about a mermaid who struggles with social, spiritual, and internal battles throughout her journey to find her prince charming on land. Unlike the typical Disney version of fairy tales that end happily ever after, Andersen’s version is an unbelievably spiritual and emotional tale where goodness triumphs over evil in an unexpected ending. The little mermaid makes a deal with the sea witch in where she trades in her mermaid tail for a set of human legs to be able to walk on land and meet her prince. However, this barter did not come without consequences. The mermaid would have to enchant the prince with love without the use of her charming voice. The sea witch cut off her tongue in exchange for her draught that gives the mermaid a set of human legs. She would have to make him fall in love with her without the use of her voice, “the best thing she possessed” (Andersen). Unfortunately, this was not the only consequence of becoming a human that the little mermaid would have to endure. If she could not make the prince fall in love with her, she not only would be unable to gain an immortal soul, but she would die as soon as the prince marries another. “A mermaid has not an immortal soul, nor can she obtain one unless she wins the love of a human being. On the power of another hangs her eternal destiny” (Andersen). The little mermaid is willing to risk all of this in order to be...
Words: 965 - Pages: 4
...The late 1980’s film, The Little Mermaid is relevance because it appears to oppose the feminist movement in history that advocated for female advancement and empowerment within society. It is imperative that Disney’s skewed recreation of the beloved tale, The Little Mermaid be analytically criticized because it was meticulously portrayed to perpetuate anti-feminism. It is also important to analyze the use of language, images and other affecting factors and how they too contribute to sexism depictions in this film. There are various examples within the film where the female characters’ bodies and minds are demeaned and undervalued because of the imposing dominance the characters imposed upon them. One of these includes the exchange of Ariel’s voice for legs and the declaration in “Kiss the Girl” that could win over Eric without saying a word because of her good looks....
Words: 1486 - Pages: 6
...Dustin Hingley Complexity and Individualism in Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” “The Little Mermaid” is a fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid (girl) who longs to be part of another world; the result of having fallen in love with a prince and learning how to attain an immortal soul. Fairy tales like those by the Brothers Grimm or Charles Perrault tend to be quite simple, in the sense that they focus on general messages and lessons surrounding common initiations, or stages of life, that we all go through as human beings. “The Little Mermaid” is far more complex than any of the Grimms’ or Perrault’s tales. Andersen Provides the reader with a more individualized, realistic experience of life and its hardships, something not typically found in other tales. Through his highly refined detail and imagery, the symbol of a voiceless woman, and the little mermaid’s decision to sacrifice her happiness for the sake of the prince’s, Andersen shows us what it means to struggle in order to understand one’s identity. Andersen utilizes extensive detail to describe everything from gross manifestations of scenery to the subtleties of the young mermaid’s thoughts. By providing such detail Andersen allows the reader to see through the eyes of the little mermaid as she moves along on her quest. When we are introduced to the princess, whom the prince marries, she is described as having “delicate and glowing” skin and “long dark lashes” surrounding...
Words: 668 - Pages: 3
...Ariel is from the movie The Little Mermaid, she is a day dreamer and rebels against her father. In the film she is only 16 and wishes she was human, she collects many items from sunken ships and places them in her secret grotto. Due to her father’s rule she is banned from seeing humans, but against this rule she saves a human prince named Eric and falls in love. She dreams of being with him and sees a sea witch and trades her voice for legs. In the end she marries Eric and her father lifts the rule. This stereotypes teenagers to be daydreamers and rebellious against older family members, it also stereotypes that girl teens non-stop daydream about finding true love and happily ever after. Most Teenagers just want some independence and to figure...
Words: 254 - Pages: 2
...Over the course of many years mermaids and sirens have been combined into one character. Originally mermaids were half human half fish creature and sirens were half human half bird who sing to lure sailors to their death. In many movies, such as Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, mermaids and sirens are combined into one creature. In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, characters refer to mermaids as a half human half fish creature that sing to lure sailors to their death. I am using this mermaid/siren creature as an example of a siren, since they have sired characteristics. My archetype is temptresses in greek mythology. The difference between greek mythologies and the movies trademark characteristics is their form. In greek mythology Sirens are half human and half bird and in the movie Sirens are half human half fish. This affects their setting as well....
Words: 608 - Pages: 3
...Sirens are said to be these mythical creatures in Greek mythology whom torment men at sea. Both Margaret Atwood's poem and in Homer's Odyssey, Sirens are portrayed in ways that differentiate the thoughts of them in the past and in the present. Although they do differentiate in various ways, their meaning and image stand the same. In both Homer's Odyssey and Atwood's poem "Sirens Song", Sirens are said to be malicious and bad creatures. They are said to lurk in the ocean tormenting sailors who roam the seas, but despite the harm they can cause, it seems that their deadly melody is a yelp for help. in Homer's Odyssey their song is described as an urgent call, and in the "Sirens Song" it is described as a cry for help. Despite the similarities,...
Words: 263 - Pages: 2
