I've often pondered the allegorical dimension to both the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale and its Disney incarnation. Against the backdrop of Main Street USA, however, the spectacle of Ariel in her clear-walled prison takes on a different flavor. And her retinue's bright colors almost seem like acts of cultural resistance.
No, my dear, as Sylvia Plath intuited, you can't ever be part of that world. . .
