Is 'Finding Nemo' such a goody goody show that we have fallen in love with? In today's lesson, we've learnt not to take things at surface value, and instead have an open mind to be proven false.
In this post, I have crafted some questions on Finding Nemo. Please do address the questions by considering both sides of the coin. The purpose of this activity is to practice developing a critical distance between ourselves and the text so that we can evaluate it objectively.
Pen your response in the Comment section below! Homework: Pen two responses (a total of 600-700 words) by Sunday midnight. If you hit the word limit through a single post, you don't have to craft another post. You may wish to reply to your peers' comments as well.
Marvin is Nemo's father. After Nemo was born, his siblings and mother were eaten by a huge predator. Since then, Marvin has been an overprotective father to Nemo, who eventually challenged the father by touching a human boat near the surface of the sea. Nemo was caught and brought to a dentist's water tank. Marvin searched high and low for Nemo, with the help of Dory, a fish that can read but suffers from memory loss. Funny antics followed suit, and eventually father and son were reunited. Marvin learnt to give his son the space to grow and be independent.
This story focuses on two negative role models: Nemo the Selfish, and Marvin the Irresponsible.
It is perfectly rational for Marvin to be overprotective - he lost his wife and hundreds of his kids to a predator in that habitat, yet Nemo was rude and inexplicably selfish. Had he try to understand his father, he would have learnt that his father only had his best interests at heart. Furthermore, he may be young, but he had no reason to rudely challenge his father's wisdom. In fact, by being so selfish in putting himself first, he put his aged father through a series of mightily dangerous ocean deathtraps. Nemo was purely lucky his dad made it. To praise Nemo would be to tell children that it is okay to be selfish and neglect others' lives.
Marvin was the irresponsible character in the story. He failed to discipline his son when his son needed iron rules - this was why Nemo did not listen to the dad. Marvin then foolishly searched for his son by using circumstantial evidence - finding a pair of goggles in the middle of the ocean and assumed that the address on it had to be the fishnapper's address! If you were to lose your son in a forest, would you look for a pair of spectacles and go to the address on it, thinking it belongs to the kidnapper? He later partnered someone with a memory problem, trusting that she can read! Would you trust someone with a memory problem in a foreign place, with her claiming she has some skill? She could be making it up all along! It is just ridiculous that a dad can be so irresponsible and irrational.
How do you feel about Marvin and Nemo now? Are they good characters? Having reviewed these characters, what do you think of the story?