The "other" ending

Dad had a storytelling voice that I can still hear, the words sounding rich and full and within each word I could see the other worlds he was reading about. I could sense disappointment, fear, and adventure. Dad’s voice captured the soul of the story and drew me into the worlds of Brer Rabbit, Uncle Wiggily the rabbit gentleman, and every witch, villain, and princess from the Brothers Grimm. However, the best story dad read was The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. It was dad’s reading of the “Great Dane’s” stories that made me believe the book jacket that claimed Andersen to be “the world’s greatest storyteller.” When I demanded stories from the book, dad insisted on reading from beginning to end, one story per day, so it was days of agonizing anticipation before he reached the last one, and my favorite. It is still my favorite today, but not Disney’s animated version. It might be strange that I prefer the more somber, slightly depressing version of this tale, because what little girl doesn’t want to hear about princesses finding their one true love and getting a happily ever after. But by age 5, I was already painfully aware that for most, there was no ONE true love, and happily ever after existed only in stories, but it wasn’t the ultimate ending for all fairy tales. For many storytellers of the past, their tales of love had a simultaneous ending of violent retribution at the hands of the wronged. Sleeping Beauty and Snow White come to mind, such sweet, presumably gentle young women who allowed their nemesis to die gruesome deaths for the wrongs they had committed.

Every fairy tale had a life lesson and Andersen’s was no exception. The Little Mermaid was a character I could relate to; she was unhappy with the life she led and there were greener pastures and all, although in her case they were on land, and she wanted what was seemingly unattainable. I think that, without realizing it, what drew me to the story was that this girl who gave up her own voice that would have given her what she wanted most, learned the meaning of true happiness and love in the end. Without getting the guy. My parent’s divorce had shown me that getting what you thought you wanted didn’t necessarily mean you could keep it. And growing up poor was a daily lesson in not getting what you want and that the grass was always greener on the other side.

When the sisters give up their hair in exchange for the knife the mermaid is to plunge into the heart of her true love so that his blood can turn her legs back into a tail, part of me thought she should do it because at least she could be with her family. But she had gone from kind of a spoiled mermaid princess to a young woman who understood what love was all about. She didn’t have the “if I can’t have him, nobody can” kind of attitude, she wanted what made him happy. She had learned that loving someone meant that you wanted what made them happy, not just what makes you happy. So as bittersweet as it was, by becoming a spirit of the air and spending 300 years helping people on earth, she could finally earn her immortal soul. As an adult, I realize that it also drives home the message that you don’t get something for nothing. She showed one act of mercy and kindness by sparing the prince’s life but she needed to prove that she had one hundred percent adopted that behavior, therefore the 300 years of selfless giving.

I have a five-year-old granddaughter who loves Disney and all stories. I plan on sharing this story, and others, with her because I want her to hear the “other” endings. I don’t want her to think that life is depressing or that she can’t have what she wants, but I want her to grow up to be realistic about it. She already knows that she is our princess, but like her mom and aunt, she is a princess in this real world that can sometimes be unfair and difficult to navigate. I think a strong sense of values and a spot-on understanding of how life CAN work is vital. Plus, it would give me such a wonderful opportunity to share one of my passions with her – fairy tales. I would love to tell her about how they came about and what their original purpose was and most of all, I want her to know that the ultimate goal for any girl is NOT to find a man to be happy. Sometimes it takes a while to find the perfect someone and it’s fine to make yourself happy with a career and/or pets first. Having raised two girls, I understand how difficult it is to explain to children why real life does not always match the unrealistic expectations they’ve acquired from Disney princess movies about happily ever after. Because my granddaughter is so focused on stories, I think the best way to do that is to read some to her that takes the ending down a different path.