Author Archives: Carina Virto

Week 9: The Human in Humanities Environmental Issues

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For this weeks’ blog I wanted to focus on the key point made in The Emergence of the Environmental Humanities: that humans are the cause and answer to environmental issues that plague the world. Humans are, and have always been, and invasive species to the planet; we drive cars that produce lots of CO2 emissions, we overfish the sea, we destroy land to create homes, and so on. The article, early on, states how, “—[the] current consumption of the earth’s resources is not sustainable” (MIT, 1) and that this issue is not fixable by scientists alone. The writers of this essay essentially say that in order to fix this issue we need to convince humans to go along with a solution by catering to them and highlighting the profitability. This leads me to my underlying point that in a capitalistic world, one where you will not show up to your next shift if you receive nothing but knowing you are contributing to the betterment of society, the globally impacting environmental issues will never be resolved in a world full of narrow minded individuals. For example, as an average citizen it is hard to grasp the idea that I alone can do anything about the carbon emissions cars produce every day because even with the invention of new electrically powered cars, it doesn’t mean that me or the next person will have the money to buy one. Therefore the writers then touch on the idea that in order for an environmentally forward shift in any aspect of every day life to have an effect, the new shift must take note of “— adequate insight into the historical and cultural context of a proposed solution” (MIT, 2). This problem is a human made problem that will take everyone’s opinions, outlooks, and ideas to be contributed if we ever want to make any sort of real, positive, change in our environment. Humans are very emotionally wired beings, so if we can get people to care about this issue AND make it make the most practical sense, only then will change have the potential to occur; without those two qualities, humans cannot be bothered and we will ride the Earth until it’s’ wheels fall off.

Week 8: The Trouble with Wilderness

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The reading for this week was the first reading to really pinpoint and dissect the notion that perhaps humans and nature are one and if so why is it that we feel separate from it. It seems no matter what text you read in this class, a Christian value can be spotted somewhere in its interpretation. In this particular case, I felt the religious aspect added to not only the awe and beauty of nature, but also the fear and otherness it gives off. Cronin pointed out that in “—early Christian saints and mystics had often emulated Christ’s desert retreat as they sought to experience for themselves the visions and spiritual testing He had endured. (Cronin, 10)” I think this urge to go into the unknown and truly immerse yourself into something natural. Like the desert, to experience something supernatural or unnatural, pulls on the idea that we as a human race knew very little of the natural world around us during this Romantic period, but it was this era of curiosity that gave these natural environments a sort of mysterious personification. It was no longer supposed that nature was simply a desolate plot of land, but when given meaning by the Bible, nature began to warrant respect from its human counterparts. I also thought this idea showed through in the quote “[God] would most often be found in those vast, powerful landscapes where one could not help feeling insignificant and being reminded of one’s own mortality. (Cronon, 10)” It would seem that in order for humans to respect nature and view/understand its value, a hierarchical mindset must be employed. Since God was above all, of course he would chose places that remind you, you are but one single human he has created in this vast world he has crafted. It would seem that for humans to give value to anything, they must see themselves below it, which may warrant the question why humans respect things they feel powerless to? I’m not sure exactly what it all means but I thought these ideas were striking in the reading so hopefully one of my fellow classmates can further elaborate my thoughts.

Midterm: Close Read Essay

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Carina Virto

ECL 305

Professor Pressman

03, March 2024

How to get into Heaven: Womens’ Edition 

Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid is a religious, Christian,  how-to in terms of being accepted in the kingdom of Heaven. The story centers on a young mermaid, at the coming of age, who sacrifices everything, including her life, in order to win the affections of a mortal man, and consequently a soul. In Christian norms, it is traditional for a woman to marry a man, become a mother, and serve her husband and family to the fullest extent. Religion plays a substantial role in how those who follow its faith behave in society. In The Little Mermaid the emphasis placed on a woman marrying a man, or devoting her life to God, serves as a Chrstian allegory for the low value women possess on their own, further perpetuating harmful gender roles and overall treatment of women in society.

The little mermaid gives up her princess life, natural form, and family and chooses to undergo mutilation to her natural form, risking her life, and the loss of her voice for the chance to gain the affections of her male interest and an immortal soul. At the age of 15, the little mermaid was able to swim up to the surface of the ocean and view the human world above. One of her many visits to the surface sparked a deep, romantic, interest in a prince whose ship sank and that she had saved. Ultimately, her love interest furthered her fascination with the human world, inclining her to ask her grandmother about the life cycle of humans. Through this conversation, the little mermaid learns that humans possess an immortal soul that grants them ascension into “… favored regions, that [merpeople] shall never be privileged to see. (Anderson, 118)” These supposed regions are a direct reference to the Kingdom of Heaven in Christianity. In the Christian religion it is humans who may ascend into Heaven, not animals, spirits of nature, sinners, or non-believers. In this case, the little mermaid is still in the form not of man, therefore it is vital that she does something in order to change herself to gain the opportunity to ascend in her afterlife. Her grandmother then goes on to detail how the only way to acquire an immortal soul is to be loved by a human “so dearly that you were more to him than either father or mother–”. This caveat is an obvious ode to the idea that if a Christian woman wishes to gain access to the kingdom of heaven, she must follow through with her expected role as a woman in this society: to be wed to a man. If she fails to do so, her duties will have not been fulfilled as God intended. This ideology screams the notion that women are second class citizens to men, and were simply put on this earth to appease a man. This type of theme has been spun many times, especially in Genesis 2:18 which reads, “The LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’” Eve was then created from one of the ribs of Adam, made solely for his benefit. Eve was not created when Adam was, but instead she was created to perfectly suit Adam’s needs and along with his own personal timeline, and for no other reason. Therefore it would seem that a woman’s sole purpose is to find their own Adams and contort themselves by whatever means possible to be able to serve him, as it was why she was created in the first place. To fail at this duty is to defy God’s intentions and to be denied access to Heaven.  With these ideologies in mind, the little mermaid eventually finds herself making a trade with a sea witch. The sea witch agrees to help the little mermaid for the price of  “the best of all [she] possesses in exchange for [the] valuable potion. (122)” These attributes include her tail, which shall be split into two and will condemn her to excruciating pain every time she walks, but not when she dances, and her voice. After learning the price of her desire to become human, the little mermaid asks, “But if you take away my voice– what have I left?” To which the sea witch replies, “Your lovely form– your buoyant carriage, and your expressive eyes.” The entire exchange not only expresses to the reader the sacrifices women are expected to make in order to be loved by a man and appease God’s intention for her, but it degrades her to simply a vessel of a person. The little mermaid will be a dancing monkey with no voice or value, just her body and beauty to give to her potential husband. She will not be able to express herself through words, because womens’ emotions cease to matter, she will not be able to feel comfortable unless entertaining her male counterpart as she has no other duty, and she will not be able to continue on physically living if she is denied by him. This degradation of women further reinforces the hierarchical gender roles perpetuated in Christianity, which is highly damaging to the perceived female value among society. 

Although the little mermaid is ultimately rejected by her love interest, all is not lost as there will always be another man to be devoted to– God. After the little mermaid turns into seafoam, having failed to capture the unrequited love of her love interest, Anderson writes an extension of the story to explain what other option a woman has if she is to fail her Christian duty of marrying a man: devoting your life to God. As the little mermaid floats as seafoam she then transforms and her body begins to rise out of the foam and high into the sky. When she inquires those around her where she may be they respond, “Amongst the daughters of the air!” (129). The daughters of the air also lacked an immortal soul but could “obtain one by their good deeds.” The little mermaid learns that after three hundred years of good deeds she may obtain an immortal soul after all. The daughters of the air are essentially aerial spirits, in which no human being can see. In Christianity there are a group of women who devote themselves to the Lord, abstain from sin, and are hardly seen by the public: Nuns. It would seem that Anderson is telling his readers that if you pursue your duty of deviating yourself to a man in holy matrimony and come out unsuccessful, after one try of course, you may then switch your course to instead serve God himself for the rest of your lifetime. The spirits then go on to confirm that indeed “[they] shall glide into the Kingdom of Heaven, after the lapse of three hundred years.” It is customary that Christains act in good deeds and abstain from sinning in order to be deemed worthy of a Heavenly afterlife, therefore it would make sense that this route was the next best thing for the little mermaid to pursue. Despite the idea that the little mermaid is still getting her immortal soul after all, the idea that she herself still needs to endure three hundred years as a daughter of the air in order to be granted access into heaven whereas men simply have to abstain from sin, is a clear representation of the pedestal men stand on in which women reside below. It is important to note that there are no “sons of the air” but that they are daughters, women. This sort of path is not necessary for the man, just as it was not necessary for Adam to require a purpose to be created. 

Men were created by God as a representation of his love and to spread love, whereas women were created as an afterthought, so that men would not live alone. It is clear, through the depiction of the little mermaid’s life, that according to Christainty, the widest followed religion in the world, that women lack value if she is not to be serving a man or serving the Lord. Notions of this substance attack the value of a woman and her importance as a human being, and give society an excuse to treat them as less than. Moreover, it is imperative to dissect texts like these to avoid being misled into thinking that if you are a woman then you’re insubordinate or that if you are a man that you may treat her as such. Literature is powerful in its ability to spread ideologies and influence society, therefore stories like these need not be blindly accepted as truths, but rather critically analyzed to understand societal biases against women and unveiling the absurdity gender roles confine them to in their pursuit for happiness.  

Works Cited

Anderson, Hans Christian. “The Little Mermaid.” The Penguin Book of Mermaids, ‎Penguin Classics , Westminster, London, 2019, pp. 107–129. 

“God Made Eve and Ordained Marriage .” The Elegant Farmer, www.elegantfarmer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/God-Made-Eve-and-Ordained-Marriage.pdf. Accessed 4 Mar. 2024. 

Week 7: The little Mermaid

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This week’s reading focused on Hans Christian Anderson’s “Little Mermaid” folktale. I have never read the original story of the little mermaid and found so many similarities to the Disney adaptation of it. What I found that Disney kept the most similar in the adaptation was the fact that this is sort of a coming of age story. It seems like there’s always a theme to each of these mermaid stories that the mermaid is just a symbol for something larger; they’re always meant to teach us, and that brings me back to the roots of the word monster having meanings of teaching. In this folktale specifically, it seemed like a coming of age story mostly, sprinkled in with Christian values and expected gender roles. The grandmother in the story makes this tradition around the 15th birthday as when “[they] have accomplished your 15th year” (page 109), they were able to go up and see the world above. The 15th birthday held much significance in this story as that was the age the young mermaids were allowed see the entire world for the first time. This tradition reminds me of the Mexican tradition, where on your 15th birthday you’re basically seen as an adult as a young woman, and have a Quinceañera. I can see a lot of history, sort of repeating itself within the stories and everyone as a society having the similar culture just in different fonts. I think that significant because it really shows how similar we are as human beings, regardless of where we come from and when we came from. This notion of you vs the unknown really goes away when you realize our similarities even when it is portrayed through something so different, such as a mermaid.

(posted before 6pm, just edited a typo)

Week 6: The Mermaid Craze

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Although I wanted to touch on the idea that this week, at least in the section we read, we finally see a cute love story between a man and mermaid, the overwhelming amount of aha moments I had reading about the mermaid boom essentially warrants its own blog post. The readings pertaining to “The Feejee Mermaid Hoax” (Penguin, 239-244) and “Freakshows and Fantasies” (Vaughn Scribner’s Merpeople) opened my eyes to the answer of why humans are, and have been, so fascinated by mermaids for centuries. As we’ve been reading throughout this class, mermaid tales have been told and recorded for a very long time but I think the Feejee mermaid hoax boosted its popularity for the 1840s. This showman was able to gain a lot of traction on his “discovery” as the Enlightenment was not too far before this time; an era of new thinking and ideas, surely a hybrid human would take the worlds interest with both hands. Although, like we all know, this discovery was a hoax, it did the job on captivating the world once more of this hybrid creature as one of the papers covering the story only discusses the Feejee mermaid in its’ first paragraph while “—the rest is essentially a chronology of mermaid sightings” (Penguin, 240), sparking conversation once again.

Then the transition from learning about this worldwide hoax to reading chapter 4 “Freakshows and Fantasies” you get a clear understanding on how curiosity and curiosities were able to captivate the minds of many people around the world. During this era, 1800-1850s, many Americans were certainly advancing as a nation but still had much to learn as they introduced coal powered engines but weren’t wearing gloves for surgery until a bit later. Therefore with this sort of contradicting, mindset era, playing out the idea of a hybrid beast being out there, but not actually seeing it was somewhat more close to reality than it might be today. Also, the press had a big factor in the culture of this time; there was no Internet, so the newspaper was as bad as real factual information you could receive. Therefore, if the newspaper said there was a mermaid sighting then maybe there actually was. This chapter also mentions how even in the scientific third wave of this mermaid craze people still hoped “—for a brief escape from their hard realities of their daily [lives] more than a peek into mystical wonder.” That quote says it all: essentially we have used this mermaid symbol to teach, to push religious values, to warn, and now for an escape. The mermaid wether it be real or not physically never ceases to legitimize that creative, wondrous spark of hope in our minds and hearts. That’s why myths and legends weather they’re real or not, are able to craft morals and values because of the magical element they hold, and therefore mesmerize a reader.

Week 5: Christian Themes and New Interest for Men

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For this weeks reading, I found that there were more Christian themes and new interest for men. A lot of the stories we have read previously, where, somewhat putting women as mermaids in which they were sexualized, lusted, dangerous, but in this weeks, reading, we kind of continue that theme of the siren, where women now offer men knowledge. Some of the reading for me was a little bit difficult to understand, but what I picked up on from “The Legend of Melusina” and the other three versions of the same tale was sort of the curiosity of the unknown. This theme almost reminded me of somewhat the Christian sort of wanting the readers to fear this unknown or better yet stay true to their promises and have faith. The stories, in a way, reminded me of Adam and Eve, and not trusting that same serpent symbol. If Eve were to have simply listened to what God said, then there would be no trouble, and in this case, if the king were to have listened and not seen Melusina on Saturday, then all would have been well. It’s as if the church was trying to push the message that you need to have faith and discipline, regardless of your curiosity of the unknown; to essentially not be led into temptation. I just enjoyed how, in this case, the unknown was the sort of knowledge thing rather than the temptation of a woman’s body, or what women might dangerously do. This is the sort of spreading I was used to before coming into this class, rather than putting women into negative light in order to teach them and spread messages.

Week 4: Gender roles slightly reversed

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In this week’s readings, “The Penguin Book of Mermaids”, I was really interested to see that in some aspects women figures like sirens were not seen as sexual, where, as we finally are introduced to some male creatures, for lack of better word, and they are on that flipside of being dangerous and predatory. In the chapter regarding “Odysseus and the sirens“ Sirens were more regarded as having “the law and knowledge [they] Held in antiquity, had to do with life and death, or knowing The future beyond human ability— Not so much with sexuality” (Brown, 9). I thought the view of this siren was probably the first time I encountered a perspective where they put A woman like in a positive light. Many of our other readings are to say that women are sexual, deceptive, dangerous, and so on, whereas in this interpretation, they have much to give; Far more than just their outward appearances and pleasure. The same page even goes onto emphasize this perspective by explaining how Odysseus is “subject to erotic temptation more than once— But the sirens law is a different kind”. The next sentence goes onto explain how “Homer’s Sirens sing a song that promises knowledge— A wisdom that bridges world— Instead of pleasure.” As I mentioned, before, if the reader didn’t understand that the sirens were not meant to be put in the box of sexual desire or deception, but that The siren song was putting out more valuable promise. Another way to interpret perhaps, Put men in a better light that they don’t simply crave sex and physicality from women but instead, they crave knowledge and power; creating a new theme of lifting up men without putting down women for once.

Adding onto the Idea of gender swaps, in the chapter regarding “The Tuna (Eel) of Lake Vaihira”, the eel character is said to have raped his beloved, princess bride. In this case, and throughout the whole story, the female character seems to be a respectable character rather than the eel, who could be described as menacing, yet still powerful, but ultimately unfavorably dangerous. Although one may counterclaim and say, the princess is a damsel in distress, following tired gender-norm, I would argue that this is one of those few times in the stories where you can see how the strong desire for women can be harmful; teaching men to be respectable, rather than to paint women as these sex-crazed, dangerous monsters.