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)