The Little Mermaid Research Paper

“The Mysteries Surrounding the Existence of Mermaids and Sirens”
Admit it or not, we all watched the Disney movie entitled “The Little Mermaid” at least once in our life. Most commonly when we were growing up. Some have watched it even more than once. If not “The Little Mermaid”, another movie could probably be “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”. Some of us wanted to be mermaids and sirens, some wanted to see them. What are these creatures? Why is there no credible or strong scientific evidence that proves or disproves their existence? Are they the same thing, or are they not? These two creatures are often mistaken as each other, or the same thing, and there are justifications why they are. Based on a text by Granit, it is under the “delivery of experimental evidence for a view that is probable, yet not established, because such evidence as there is has not yet excluded alternative possibilities.” This study is under this category because it has not been proven

The name came from the word “mer” meaning sea, and “maiden”, generally meaning a young, beautiful, marriageable woman. They are said to love combing their hair while they stare at themselves in a mirror, which is why they are often depicted as women with long, beautiful hair, holding a mirror and a comb. The earlier characteristics of mermaids were ugly and monstrous (East England Broadband Network (E2BN), 2006). To make them fit into his story, Andersen changed the description of the mermaids. He romanticized their species, making them look as if they long to live on the land rather than stay underwater. Mermaids are, most of the time, associated with death and misfortune. They lure sailors off course, and hypnotize them. They make sailors jump off their ships and these sailors end up dying due to drowning. Mermaids are said to live up to 300 years, but even then, they are said to have no