Yetu going above the surface is an unpredictable predictable Western mermaid story: A mermaid going to land, falling in love with a human. Yet, with a queer love story and a human transitioning into the world of merpeople, Solomon subverts Western mermaid stories. On page 129 Solomon writes, “This truth, that two-legs were cruel and unusual, was the most important lesson of the History” In The Deep humanity is the other, the monsters. Yetu being the main Historian of the story line is significant because her character demonstrates an overwhelming sense of empathy. With her empathy, Yetu shows the reader how to overcome monstrosity by relinquishing hatred. In contrast with Basha, who’s experience as Historian leads them to vengeance: “In the old days, when we discovered a ship that threw our ancestors into the sea like refuse, we sunk it. Now we will sink the world.” (128) Yetu’s empathy eventually leads her people to mental peace. She leaves her home, the deep, because of her empathy. It is clear that she cannot handle being the Historian because she feels the pain of her ancestors in a tremendous way. After she leaves, she gains perspective. Not just from conversing with humans, but literal perspective. “The vastness of the ocean looked so different from above, so much less comprehensible.” (77) Yetu gains a human perspective of the ocean, but more than this she shows how easy it is for humans to misread the ocean. An ocean dweller who recognizes the incomprehensibleness of the ocean when viewing its surface gives the reader perspective. How could a human ever understand the vastness, the importance, or the creatures of the ocean from their surface knowledge.

Like “The Water Will Carry Us Home”, The Deep gifts life, History, and descendants to people who experienced attempted erasure. But it also endows mermaid stories with a quality that has seriously been lacking. Throughout the semester I have been yearning for a mermaid tale that designates a human into the mer-world. A human into the mer-world as invitation, not punishment. I have been wanting this story not only for myself. I think inviting a human into a mermaid’s world will help to decentralize Christianity’s dominion over Earth.

“This time, the two-legs venturing into the depths had not been abandoned to the sea, but invited into it.” (155)