Quick Life Lessons from The Little Mermaid

Ariel is probably the font of all knowledge

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

I only had three Disney VHS tapes growing up, Bambi, Fantasia and The Little Mermaid. So maybe it’s no surprise that I have a fondness for deer, hippos and combing my hair with a fork.

1. Materialism Does Not Bring Joy

‘Look at this stuff, isn’t it neat? Wouldn’t you think my collection’s complete? Looking around here you’d think, “sure, she’s got everything!”’ — Ariel in her cave of materialism, 1989

One of the first scenes in The Little Mermaid is Ariel in her cave, revealing she’s a bit of a hoarder and that she’s miserable because it’s never enough. It’s all just souvenirs from a world she isn’t part of.

And isn’t that how most of us feel in our materialistic society? We keep buying choss we don’t need to make us feel like we’re keeping up with the Jones’. We buy stuff because a celebrity told us we should. But that’s not our world. It’s not any world.

Ariel had the crushing hedonic adaptation of the material world figured out pretty early on.

2. Marine Litter is a Big Problem