The Lady and the Merman

Pick one tale, and discuss it in terms of how a child at a particular age and stage of development might benefit from reading it or having it read to her or him.

Just as a side note, children's stories especially fairy tales can sometimes be terribly depressing. I'm curious if this is common in the "Little Mermaid" sort of tales moreso than just fairy tales in general.

I'm taking "The Lady and the Merman" by Jane Yolen. Here, the woman is practically an orphan with a father who finds her plain and can't bare to look at her. Though the woman is good and caring, she keeps her pain in her heart after revealing it once to her father who recommended "salt for such wounds" which while he might have meant the salt he encunters on his journeys to sea by sweat, tears, and ocean water, it brings up the classic image of someone "rubbing salt in your wounds" to increase the pain. Bourne, our heroine, still watches the sea for his return and one day falls for a merman. Her father finally shows some concern for her, but not much, but she continues wishing for her merman to reappear. He does, but he can not stay so she follows him into the sea. While depressing, it could also be a happy ending. She died in the pursuit of love, and might not actually be dead as though the final line states "She was beautiful for the first time. And for the last." it is still vague enough to suggest she live. Then the father is of course happy to be rid of this burden, though as a reader I at least hope he regrets this one day.

As far as reading this to children and having children read it, I'd place it in the 3-6 age range. On a superficial level, the story is bittersweet, but not everything can be outright "happily ever after." As far as Freud goes, this age range is perfect. 3-6 is where he places the Oedipus complex and Jung adds in the Electra complex. The mother figure and the daughter both wanted nothing more than to please the father and the males in their lives. The mother died because she hadn't pleased him, and one could in a sense say that the birth of this daughter that the father didn't care for was the death of the mother. Then the daughter expected to take the other woman's place, but never recieved an equal amount of love as to what she put out, so she sought out the only other male that remotely struck her interest, the Merman, and he only really occured to her because he wsa part of what her father did love, the sea. In the end, she ventures into the sea to please them both she thinks, the merman who might love her back and the father she has wronged by being born. The story is also rather egocentric. While Bourne helps others, this is all just side business that we don't see her actually doing. She is still looking for what she wants, her father's love and later the Merman's love. This can also fit into Piaget's stages in this. Then also as it fits with Freud, so it fits with Erikson. At 3-6 the child is learning more about becoming independent, which though Bourne feels a need for others, she is an independent character. She cares for herself, her father, and others around her. She takes her watch for her Merman in the end upon herself and tries to reach him when she knows fears can not. When the Merman leaves, he doesn't tell her to jump into the water to follow him, she decides this on her own.