After reading “Mermaid Fever,” the statement that I think this essay makes about societal attitudes is that people will react and behave very strangely to anything that is out of the ordinary. The narrator bases his essay on a public beach, located in a small town in Connecticut, and out of the blue, this teenage girl’s body was washed up under the tide line one summer night. After extensive scientific tests and examinations on the body, the news finally broke out that the girl was a mermaid. The girl was soon transferred to a local museum in town where she would be put on a glass display that will be open to the public. This news brought the whole city together, and people waited in line for hours just to observe this fond discovery.
In an article published by Sneva, Diane, she talks about the puerto rican women’s movement and how Ferre’s short story, “The Youngest Doll” came to life. Sneva states as following, “The Youngest Doll” shows a woman who exacts revenge on those who try to prevent her from living fully. Through its heroine the story challenges patriarchal hierarchies and suggests that Puerto Rican females must empower themselves” Sneva points out challenges that women face on a personal level. How they are seen upon like, dolls, just social figures, and men are seen as the patriarch of the society that use the dolls for show.
The Little Mermaid: Hegemonic Femininity The transition from a girl to a woman is created by the socially constructed ideals of femininity often depicted in commercials, books, and mainly films. One of the famous animated princess Disney films, The Little Mermaid can be easily added to yet another Disney film portraying hegemonic femininity. In the 1989 film The Little Mermaid, (Ron Clements, John Musker) a beautiful, young mermaid is willing to make a risky deal with an evil sea-witch because she yearns to walk on land and fall in love with a Prince, while secretly the sea-witch wishes for the mermaid to lose the deal. Ultimately, mermaid ends up achieving her dream of marrying the Prince, although the evil sea-witch tries to destroy the plan.
The topic of self confidence is a subject that is heavily discussed when it comes to girls of all ages. Journalist, Stephanie Hanes, examines the current trend of sexualization amongst young girls. In the article “Little Girls or Little Women: The Disney Princess Effect”, Hanes examines the current trend of sexualization amongst girls. She addresses the issue of desiring to become a women too soon. Hanes develops her article by using the literary techniques of pathos and logos to describe the emotions young girls feel when they see images of women with unattainable features.
The central idea of Symbolic interactionism is symbols are the key to understanding how we view the world and communicate with one another (page 13). In The Little Mermaid, the human artifacts that Ariel collects are symbols of how she views their world. Scuttle is symbol of how she communicates with the world above her. The Disney movie also helps children establish an explanation about relationships. This guides kids to discover how society defines relationships.
Across cultures and civilizations, the sea has always been an important figure both in the benefits it provides in daily life and its presence in storytelling. In consequence, sea monsters have been important figures in myths and stories whether it be in 1000 BCE Babylonian culture, or in 20th century America. The Babylonian Enuma Elish and Disney’s 1989 The Little Mermaid both feature a powerful female antagonist, Tiamat and Ursula, respectively, and these two figures bear many similarities. In both stories, the female antagonist holds strong relationship to the sea, and has supernatural abilities that aid her in her quest to defeat the heroic characters in the story.
Imagine a life where everything seems to revolve around one important element. And just as everything seems to be going well, it all changes within a matter of seconds. In the novel Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham, the protagonist, Jane Arrowood, had to experience this. She had a strong passion for drawing, but she was required to have her dominant arm amputated because of a shark attack. As she recovered slowly in the hospital, she showed her true inner strength when she learned to draw and write with her other hand.
In The Little Mermaid, sound is vital as it shapes multiple “functions” of the film such as, character, audience attention, and audience feeling. The characters in this film cannot simply rely on imagery alone to give the audience a sense of who they are. In The Little Mermaid, King Triton is paired with thunderous and loud sounds creating a powerful and demanding character. For example, when he begins to get riled up over Ariel’s supposed mistake the nondiegetic musical score begins to become fast paced; thus, linking his aggressiveness with the music being played. On the other hand, there is a moment when softer nondiegetic music is being heard by the audience after he reprimanded Ariel.
These songs include “Part of Your World,” “Under the Sea,” “Poor Unfortunate Souls,” and “Kiss the Girl.” “Part of Your World” is sung by Ariel to express her desire to change from a mermaid to a human, and despite the fact that “she’s got everything” her mermaid “world” and all its materialistic “treasures” is not as fulfilling as the humans’ appears to be. The song explicitly describes of a longing for female independence and proof that their degradation by the males is detrimentally affecting their happiness. “Betcha' on land, they'd understand, bet they don't reprimand their daughters, bright young women, sick of swimming ready to stand,” Ariel sings of the unfair and unjust treatment she and the other women of the sea experience and their need to stand against their suppressive dictators and “explore the shore above” to seek a better life. She sings this song in a secret cove that contains all her treasures, emphasizing the need for women to be private with the part of their lives that society deems as “unacceptable” and that does not align with their gender roles and expectations.
A Room Providing Freedom? A woman is given limited freedom. Something as simple as a room could give her a sense of liberty. In Virginia Woolf 's article, she claims that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
Disney Company is notoriously known for making revolutionary cartoon movies that always gets the kid’s attention and win their hearts. The vast majority of their movie are targeting kids, kids under the age of 15, who are unbeknownst to the hidden messages about the movie(s) they’re watching. For example, The Disney film Sleeping Beauty, the main character Aurora was cursed to be sleeping forever by an evil witch. And Prince Phillip is bound to kiss her for a “true love’s kiss” and wakes up. It is pretty evident at the ending that the prince kissed Aurora without consent and she had no idea that it was going to happen for she was asleep.
Gender is something that is brought to the attention of people well before people are even brought into the world. Take for instance, when a woman finds out that she is pregnant and is about to have a child. The first question that that women is asked is “What are you having?” In doing this we are automatically emphasizing the importance of being able to identify whether or not to buy “boy” things or “girl” things. As a society we deem it important for each sex to practice a set of “norms” of how to behave via that sex.
She searches for eternal life through good deeds and sacrificing herself. “The Shadow” is a story about a learned man who tells his shadow to go snoop on another balcony and the shadow returns years later, wealthy and powerful. The man returns home and tries to write stories about good, truth, and beauty. These stories are culturally significant because they provide universal lessons to many different cultures, especially Danish culture. “The Little Mermaid” shows the trials of the youngest mermaid of a Sea King who has six daughters.
Taking into consideration the first and main version of The Little Mermaid, author Han Christian Andersen’s, Little Mermaid, written in 1837, has different characters than the 2006 interpretation of the short story, Aquamarine. From an addition of two new female characters to the subtraction of the royal titles that each character possessed, Aquamarine is based on a twenty first century setting. The plots between the two also greatly differ and even lead up to different endings. Similarly, both mermaids are searching for love and both mermaids asked to be human. Both mermaids have a due date that forces them back into the ocean if they do not find love.
There are many similarities and differences between my culture (Korea), and Insurgents culture (The United States). They both are broken off into different parts, and they both are at high conflict with each part of their country. One difference is that Korea 's state is calmer than that of Insurgents state. Both of these cultures have major flaws and setbacks in their society that makes them both very dangerous. Despite these 2 similarities and 1 difference, these two cultures are very similar and very unique at the same time.
