The last chapter of the novel relates the story of a mermaid caught by a fisherman. Like the novel, the story has multiple outcomes. In your response, please discuss the themes of the mermaid story and show how they connect to specific events in Ayodele’s life. Use quotes if possible. This posting is due by Sunday, May 20.
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Similar to Ayodele, the mermaid in the story fantasizes about three different options and the outcomes of these decisions. Ayodele is deciding between religion, Yuan and marriage with Fredric ,as the mermaid is living her life in the sea and is constantly fantasizing about her other possibilities. The moral of the story is to never go for something only half way, but I also think it is similar to the saying “the grass is always greener on the other side.” the mermaid is discontent with the life she lives and is always busy imagining other options. As Ayodele looks back at her life, she wishes she could have gone full-heartedly for the things she wanted. From the beginning of her story, she was prone to being largly influenced by others opinions. She rushes the loss of her virginity because she is pressured and thinks it will make her a woman. Ayodele does this half-heartedly because it really isn’t in love or even lust that she takes this step. For the rest of her life, she is also influenced by others. Similar to how the mermaid is caught by the fisherman, Ayodele is oppressed by the male figures in her life. The fisherman could be a symbol for how Ayodele is living in a paternalistic society. At the end, she is discontent with her final decision and wishes she had been more adamant about her wishes.
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From the beginning, Ayodele never really took much thought as to what could result out of her actions and decisions. She never seemed to realize how many possible outcomes of her life. She is hard to read in many ways, for instance, the way she acts around all the men she’s been with. When she’s with Akim, she understands how much he loves her, but she never expresses her feelings. I found it unclear how she felt about him, even though it was obvious she didn’t like him all that much because she ended up leaving him. When he tried to commit suicide, she feels awful, yet, seemed to not care all that much. She just thinks, “and you said NO. Each beat of the rhythm tramples my choice into my history.” It appears to me that she regrets almost everything she ends up choosing. This is one of Dele’s situations that relates to the moral of the mermaid story. She didn’t completely love Akim but she still enjoyed traveling with him. This is what she describes, “half-wanting” at the end of the story. It was similar with her relationship with Yuan too, except she actually cared for him. He was a treasure to her, and she wasn’t sure how much she wanted to be with him so he left the University saying “You know, maybe someday we could be together.” She misses her chance with him though, because he gets in a motorcycle accident and dies. Being with Yuan is one choice she didn’t have enough confidence in to pursue. Ayodele decided to have sex when she was 18, because she would then become “a woman,” yet she knew that’s what she wanted. The one thing she was confident in, ended up changing the rest of the decisions she made for the rest of her life into one’s of uncertainty.
You’ve picked out some important details, Rosa – they give credence to the idea that Ayodele spent her life “half wanting” things. I think applies to her career as well as her love interests. She seems to be good at everything, but she doesn’t seem passionate about any of her work. Do you think any of this ambivalence has to do with her being in an in-between state culturally? Not sure.
Ayodele is the mermaid of her own story. In each story, she seemed to be ‘floating around’ in life, letting it take her where it wanted, and only going for things she wanted “half way.” At the end of the book, Ayodele says the moral of the mermaid tale is that “if you want something, don’t half want it.” She regrets not taking herself as far as she wanted to go in life, as she looks back at her younger years full of possibilities. As the mermaid was caught by the fisherman because she was daydreaming, Ayodele was forced into different lives throughout the book because she was always set on something bigger and better, but never went for it all the way. Instead, the ‘fishermen’ restrained her and determined her path in life. This fisherman comes in the form of all the men she is attached to in various stages of her life. It seems that her life is shaped around me men she is with, and she is no longer free in the ocean once she settled for a husband or affair (many of which she didn’t even seem completely happy about…she only “half wanted it”). At the end of each story, Ayodele seems unhappy with the rut she ends up in (Yuan’s death, her mother’s death, unhappy marriages, lonliness, etc), and knows she is to blame because “we choose things that breed unhappiness…this constant following of the perfect life that leads to wants that cannot be satisfied.” Like the mermaid wanting to live on land, Ayodele’s desire at the beginning of the book to “do the deed” and therefore instantly grow up into a real woman with a grand life ahead of her is unrealistic. This dreaming prevents her from realizing the consequences of her actions (having sex before she is ready for example), and ultimately sends her down a path that she regrets much much later in life.
I like the way you have framed the ending, Mel. It’s hard to say how much Ayodele’s choice of a partner at 18 really affected her later life, but as you say, she does have a pattern of “half wanting” things, so she tends to drift through life.
The major theme of the mermaid story is that everyone has to make their own individual choices and depending on what they choose, their lives will be influenced to turn out a certain way. The mermaid could not decide which path to take-to live in the ocean or “to go far away”-”sometimes it seems to her that life in the sea is boring”, “on nights like this she wants to live in the sky” “at other times…life on land…would be perfect”. Just like the mermaid, Ayodele imagines the possible outcomes of three different scenarios (how they would affect her life on the whole) and where she would end up. Marry Frederick Adams, move away with Yuan or strictly follow a new religion, were all options Ayodele imagined.
The moral of the mermaid story is “if you want something, don’t half-want it” because the decision can sometimes be taken out of your hands. Like how the mermaid’s decision of where to live was taken from herself because she only “half-wanted” either option, Ayodele only decides to have sex to get it over with (half-wanted it) and often regrets her decision. In general, the choice that Ayodele makes in each story does not make her happy in the end. She did not “properly go and get” what she truly wanted (which would be to wait until she was ready, which is probably when she was much older) but rather had the decision taken out of her hands (by the un-named) or halfheartedly decided just to do it because she was eighteen. She ends up losing her chance to go to university or spend the rest of her life with Yuan because she wasn’t making decisions that clearly showed what she wanted. The only thing that was truly clear to Ayodele, as to the mermaid, is that “the story did not always end the same way”.
The story did not always the same way for Ayodele, but always somewhat unhappily, it seems. This seems to be the product of not know what she really wants, not only at 18, but later in life, too. Her actions never seem truly deliberate. Maybe that’s true for most of us. Very thoughtful comment!