Character
A boy gifted with an incredible
imagination, the beautiful mermaid, the boy’s parents, and the government.
Setting
In a bureaucratic country where daydreaming
is forbidden.
Mermaid is a
short story by Osamu Tezuka, one of his masterpieces from 1964. The story
begins with an innocent boy spending his time at the beach watching a fish swim
in a small pit of water. However, the fish suddenly turns into a resplendent
mermaid. The mermaid was so friendly that they eventually got into deeper
relationships. As a result, the boy decides to bring her home to where he lives
and put her gently in an enormous tank. The boy was delirious with joy that he
told his parents about the mermaid he had found. Yet, sadly what they saw was a
fish in a tank. From the boy’s point of view, the mermaid exists; the mermaid
is not a figment of his imagination. Yet, the boy’s parent instantly
acknowledges that the boy was mentally insane. Consequently, he was convicted
for daydreaming. Yes, in this country, imagination was prohibited. The boy was
incarcerated in prison forced to expunge the memory of the mermaid by the government.
As the government’s torture continues, the image of the mermaid finally starts
to disintegrate in the boy’s head. He no longer was able to recollect what the
mermaid looked like. Eventually, due to his stress, the boy escapes from prison
and ran back to his home where the mermaid is. However, what he saw was just a fish
in a tank. He no longer had his incredible imagination.
Ending
At the end, the boy ran back to where he
first found the fish which was the beach. He tries to bring back his ability to
imagine things but did not work. As a result, he gave up and releases the fish
back to the sea when all of a sudden the mermaid came back.
What will happen next?! / Ambition
I think the boy committed suicide simply
because he wasn’t able to endure his life living in a country where imagination
was prohibited. The boy wanted to be released from a bureaucratic country.
What is reality and Fantasy?
According to the story, in my opinion fantasy
is the boy’s imagination and reality is the government. In reality, it is
impossible for a fish to turn into a mermaid. However, in fantasy nothing is
impossible.
