Clare Donahue
Opportunity costs refers to the value of what you must give up in order to choose another option. Fairytales exhibit basic economic concepts because protagonists are often faced with a series of decisions that will change the outcome of the story. This paper aims to extend the use of fairytales to economic instruction. Most students are acquainted with fairytales from childhood, so incorporating them into economic lessons allows students to read these stories through a new lens of understanding. The Little Mermaid teaches the economic concept of opportunity cost because the protagonist is faced with the decision to give up her voice to experience life on land. This choice represents an opportunity cost because the protagonist gains legs to go on land but loses her tail and voice in the process. The consequence of this choice sets off a chain of events that have ongoing costs.
“The Little Mermaid” from The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen trans. Maria Tatar, first written in 1837, demonstrates the economic concept of opportunity cost. The story follows the journey of a young girl who is willing to give up her life as a mermaid to become human. The Little Mermaid did not sacrifice everything for love alone. She had a curiosity instilled with her and even before she met the prince, she longed to see the human world. She had an intense fascination with the unknown and forbidden.
The Disney version aims to convert the brutal, violent aspects of the original fairy tales and create a more child-friendly piece of media. The movie depicts her as constrained by patriarchal society. She dreams of a world where she is free from the grasp of her culture and conservative family. She experiences the sense of twoness as her body is under the water, yet her heart and mind yearn to be on land with the people. Because of this, she is willing to sacrifice what is most important to her, her voice. Similarly, migrants give up their voice when they venture to a new life and country.
When the little mermaid decides she is ready to live on land, she goes to the sea witch who says, “You have a voice more beautiful than anyone else’s down here at the bottom of the sea… I want the dearest thing you possess in exchange for my precious potion” (Andersen, 294). The sea witch demands the little mermaid’s voice because the sea witch’s own blood is going into the potion. The sea witch’s opportunity cost is her own blood in exchange that the little mermaid can be human. The sea witch is the lender who tells the little mermaid she will give her life on land in exchange for her most precious gifts. The little mermaid is putting her future in the hands of the prince who will either fall in love with her and she will gain a soul, or he will fall in love with someone else and she will die and turn into sea foam. For her, losing her voice is worth the potential gain of an immortal soul and love. Although the concept is abstract, the consequences of her decision are concrete.
Her voice is not the only thing she gives up. She also gives up her tail in exchange for two human legs in which every step she takes will feel like treading on a sharp knife. She is willing to give up her entire life as she knows it. She will feel pain with every step she takes, giving up comfort, for a new life. The little mermaid is confident in her choice to give up her life as a mermaid to become human. She exemplifies the concept of risk because she is risking both her tail and voice, the two things that make her who she is for the prince and to become human.
From an economic lens, life is full of choices, and we must evaluate the opportunity costs of the decisions we make. When weighing her opportunity cost, if she never became human, she would always have the longing for land and the potential ‘what if’ the prince fell in love with her. She would be with her family every day in the comfort of what she has grown up and she would never get to experience another world. She would still have her voice and would not have to endure the pain of taking every step. However, we live in a finite world, and she cannot be two things at once. The little mermaid applies the concept of opportunity cost to simple life decisions. Children reading these stories are forced to think about what path each decision will lead her down. Children reading this story are learning from her decisions and can implement the concept of opportunity cost in their own lives. Her ability to make a decision that is contrary to that in which the duration she will be human is unsure, she loses her ability to communicate, and she is a part of a world foreign to her represents her strength and curiosity. The little mermaid is the only sister in her family who yearns for something more.
In a classroom, after introducing the concept of opportunity cost and reading the fairytale, students would be asked what they would be willing to give up if they were in her position. Opportunity cost is individual and subjective. Factors such as what we already have, goals, and experiences may affect the amount we are willing to give up. After explaining the concept of opportunity cost in The Little Mermaid through these examples students would be asked to list out the other examples throughout the story. The opportunity cost they would be willing to take would be gauged by creating a chart with two columns for each decision. Suppose she stays a mermaid, what is she giving up? Suppose she becomes human, what is she giving up? Identifying opportunity costs encourages students to focus on the choice itself and the benefits or disadvantages. This fairytale is comprehendible and relatable for elementary students who are familiar with these stories. The goal of this lesson is to read the fairytale through a new, economic lens and analyze the opportunity cost of the little mermaid’s decision.
In the 1989 film version of The Little Mermaid, Ariel, the little mermaid, wants to be on land. Ariel visits the sea witch who can help her be on land forever. Ursula is the large purple sea witch. She is the gatekeeper and dealmaker who decides what it will take for Ariel to go on land. The dialogue between the mermaid Ariel and Ursula, the sea witch, in the Disney adaptation of The Little Mermaid (1989), in which they seek to negotiate a deal, shows this tradeoff rather clearly. Ariel must choose between a trip to the human world and life in her mermaid kingdom. Ariel is aware that she will never see her family again as a result of choosing to become a human. She obtains the freedom to live her life as she sees fit after becoming a human. Becoming human, she paradoxically gains the voice she has been denied for so long. Although she has a voice literally underwater, she lives in a society where hers is not listened to.
The economic ideas of opportunity cost and decision-making are relevant to this clip. It is also noteworthy that Ursula tells Ariel that even in fairy tales, there is no free lunch. Ursula says. “Those who cross the bridge you’ve got to pay the toll” (Clements and Musker, 1989). This encapsulates the idea that you must ‘pay the toll’ which in this case is giving up her voice in order to ‘cross the bridge’ which means going to land. This saying explains the tradeoff that Ariel must make.
Ariel’s interest in the human world before meeting Eric is always brought up, but less people emphasize how radical that makes her in the context of her own society. Ariel lives in a culture that is hostile to outsiders; Triton refers to humans as “barbarians,” “savages,” and “incapable of any real feeling” at various points. She is frequently reminded of this by the society she lives in. Her ability to seek out this opportunity characterizes her as curious and strong. In order to leave, she must accept that she will have lost her voice, her family, and life as she knows it just to gain the opportunity to go on land. This is an extreme opportunity cost to become human.
The film depicts a hand reaching into her and taking her voice which is represented as a glowing yellow fire. Ursula commands Ariel to sing, as she summons up a pair of hands from her magic cauldron, which slowly approaches her as she sings, and her voice pulsates wildly in her throat. The hands then rip Ariel’s voice from her throat, still singing, and proceed to place it inside the necklace, silencing it (Clements and Musker, 1989, 0:45:14). This illustration shows the silencing of Ariel visually through Ursula physically taking her voice. For students, the film depiction is easy to understand and illustrates the concept of trade-offs and opportunity costs.
Making informed decisions includes weighing the additional costs and benefits of various options. The economic discipline can benefit from the usage of media in a variety of ways, including lectures, tutorials, homework, offline/online assignments, essays, and projects. According to research, using multimedia or popular culture can spark conversation in introductory lectures (Becker, 2004), demonstrate fundamental ideas (Hall, 2005; Hall and Lawson, 2008), and explain abstract ideas like game theory or option value at a more advanced level. Various students have different learning styles. Research demonstrates that people learn abstract, novel, and new concepts more readily when they are presented in both verbal and visual form. Additionally, visual materials help with subsequent recall, deep learning, and make things easier to understand than text alone (Cowen, 1984; Willingham, 2009). By providing students with both the fairytale and the clip, they can compare the differences in the plot and the consequences of her decisions.
By analyzing media using the theories and concepts they are learning, students will likely be able to: (i) maintain their interest in the theories and concepts being taught; (ii) improve their analytical skills; and (iii) break down the barrier between formal learning and understanding, allowing them to see concepts and new examples when they use the same media in their daily lives (Mateer, 2011). The subject of whether this new understanding of opportunity costs could alter the course of the students’ own lives will be discussed, and they will be asked to share instances in which they have had to consider the potential cost of a particular course of action.
The relationship between economics and The Little Mermaid is demonstrated through this film clip and fairytale passage as the concept of opportunity cost is addressed. The little mermaid/Ariel must decide what the opportunity cost and trade-offs are to go on land.
Students can learn from her experience by gaining familiarity with the concept of opportunity cost and then considering it in their own lives. The Little Mermaid can help increase children’s economic literacy. Both the film and the fairytale depict the opportunity cost in the decision she will face, and it is the conflict of the story. The fairytale does a good job of explaining what will happen and providing a vivid description of the consequences of her decision. On the other hand, the film is easy to consume and visually illustrates the tradeoff she will have to make. The little mermaid can encourage students to think about opportunity cost in their own lives and provide an example of the strength of decision making. The little mermaid challenges her society and yearns for life on land despite its opportunity costs.
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