COVE

This illustration is small and dainty. It is strictly black and white. It also only takes up a quarter of the page if not less. Just because an image is small, it does not mean that the symbolism is also small. From what I can gather, the illustration represents waves. A major setting in the story, “The Fisherman and his Soul,” is the sea. Within the first couple sentences of the story, waves were mentioned, and this continued throughout the story. They could also be seen when the talking about the magical mermaid. “There was no other sound save the sound of a wave fretting the smooth pebbles below. So she reached out her hand, and drew him near to her and put her dry lips close to his ear (Wilde). When you look at the image, you can see the curls that typically represent a wave in a sketch. The black and white coloring is simple. It makes you look solely at the image rather than vibrant colors that grab your attention first.  

This specific illustration is art deco style. Art Deco style is “relative simplicity, planarity, symmetry, and unvaried repetition of elements (Art deco). It conforms to the Art Deco style because of the geometric shapes it includes. The branches coming out of the waves have three smaller triangles dangling from the stem. There is only one branch that has four triangles. Each triangle is the same size. On the wave part, there are also circular objects that start off big and get smaller as they approach the tip of the wave. The illustration also conforms to the Art Deco style in terms of simplicity and repetition. Again, the triangles and circles are repetitive. There are multiple of them that cover the image. The image is simple due to the fact that there are few different components to the image. There are waves, branches, triangles, and circles. There is nothing extreme.  

When I first looked at the image, I was immediately drawn to what appeared to be a tree coming out of the waves. I believe I was first drawn to it because I was so unsure what it was. Was it a tree? Was it sticks? Was it a chime of some sort? After rereading the story, I concluded that it was closest to a tree. Of course, there is greenery in and around the sea. However, trees can symbolize many things, such as growth, life, individuality, wisdom, and strength (Yezi, 2017). Understanding the various symbols that trees can represent and the story, it is obvious that it was a perfect match. The fisherman in the story had strength to go back to the mermaid after the priest said, “My son, think not any more of this matter, for it is a sin that may not be forgiven” (Wilde). 

The first, and probably the most important, word that came to mind when I looked at the illustration was the sea or ocean. Waves and seas go hand in hand with each other. Another word that was pretty quick to the mind was simplistic. The image was small and simple but conveyed a crucial message. In fact, it summarized a massive aspect of the entire story. Some other words that could be used to describe the illustration include geometric, power, fish/fisherman, mermaid, and meaningful.  

Upon further investigating other illustrations created by Nadejen, a few more questions came up. I am curious as to why some are full-paged and filled with vibrant colors while others are delicate and only black and white. Did they feel as though some were more important than others? Based on the two illustrations I was assigned, I feel like they were equally symbolical. Although they were completely opposite from one another, they both held significant meaning to the story. It is interesting to look at the differences between illustrations. 

Works Cited 

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (2023, October 24). Art deco. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/Art-Deco  

Wilde, O. (n.d.). The Fisherman and his soul. The Fisherman and His Soul - A Fairy Tale by Oscar Wilde (from A House of Pomegranates). https://artpassions.net/wilde/fisherman.html 

Yezi, L. (2017, March 12). The symbolism behind trees: What do they mean to you?. CGTN. https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d417a4e326b6a4d/share_p.html?t=14893044871#:~:text=Trees%20are%20used%20to%20represent,%2C%20wisdom%2C%20power%20and%20prosperity.