The Mermaid/Merman

Symbol Analysis

This image initiates the speaker's final transformation. At first, the speaker is a human diver, but then she becomes a strange aquatic creature. A made up creature too, the sort of thing you might find in a book of myths.

  • Lines 72-73: These weird creatures are a symbol of the union between humanity and the ocean, a human torso on the body of a fish. They also help erase the boundary between man and woman, since the speaker identifies with both sexes of "merperson."