on
3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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Rating: 4/5
Time (Audiobook): 1hr 10mins
Started: 29 May 2023
Finished: 29 May 2023
Summary:
The youngest of six mermaid sisters, enamored with a human prince and the idea of an immortal soul, makes the ultimate sacrifice for her love.
Thoughts:
I have read this story before, but I had forgotten how different it is from the Disney mov ie. Yes, there is a huge change in plot, but I think it's the focus that's the most interesting part. The mermaid doesn't just want to marry the prince, she wants more than anything to be human and have an immortal soul (ostensibly a Christian one). This is a clearer and slightly better moral than that present in the Disney movie.
Then there's the sacrifice. Yes, the mermaid loses her voice, which is symbolic in itself, but she is also in constant agony whenever she uses her newly given legs. She smiles primly through the pain, grateful to have it, but to exist as human is an act of agony. The constant sacrifice to be something she is not creates an interesting message.
The writing was not what I was expecting. Half of it was lyrical and descriptive and beautiful, and the other half was so factual it read less like a classic and more like that story I wrote when I was little. I kept being surprised by how plainly and extensively things were stated, with all the minutiae spelled out. I didn't hate it, but I was not expecting it either.
Finally, the ending is the one part of the story had no recollection of. The mermaid shows compassion, and is essentially made an angel. This i so far from kiss the boy, become a bride, become human, be happy for ever after!! and I like it much better.
Despite this story being far more brutal and gruesome than the Disney version, its morals are also clearer and in better taste. The message is centered around being good and immortal, around sisters and love of live, rather than around finding and marrying a man.
Quotes:
“Only that the mermaids have no tears, and therefore, they suffer more.”