Happily Ever After

As you can see from the theme of my blog, I am a huge fan of Disney movies. The frequency to which I watch them I can admit seems a little odd at my age, but they remind me of my childhood and the simplicity of my life back then. Now that I am well into my second year of AP English I see these movies in a different light. Aside from analyzing the movies with thoughts of Aladdin’s internal conflicts, direct characterization of King Triton and the tone shifts the villains create, I have now begun to relate main themes. For instance, Saturday I began The Little Mermaid and halfway through came upon the realization that Ariel’s lifestyle parallels Gogol’s in many ways. Both characters’ dream of a world outside of their own, for Ariel she desires to become human while Gogol wishes to Americanize himself. They both stray from their families in an attempt to rebel from the traditions and expectations their father’s push on them. As Gogol’s family desires him to marry an Indian girl, King Triton insists Ariel marries a merman and neither of these characters wants to obey these instructions. Ariel makes a deal with a sea witch to turn her human and, though less extreme, Gogol moves to New York to adapt to the American culture. In the end Ariel falls in love with a human, Prince Eric, and they live happily ever after. I wonder if Gogol had stuck with his original desire to marry outside of his family’s influence he would have lived happily ever after as well.