Analysis Of Lindahl's Jack In Two Worlds

A comparison of Old World and New World storytelling styles is outlined by Lindahl as a gateway to understanding how Jack found homes in certain communities of North America. The typical märchen is woven around a conflict between home and the open road. The tales start in an ordinary place where Jack and his mother worry about the source of their next meal. Only after Jack takes to the open road to provide for his family does the story change to involve magic. Usually, the further Jack ventures from home, the more magic he encounters. In European portrayals, Jack’s return to home results in an ordinary life without magic, now enhanced by his found wealth. Linda Degh recognized that the great European storytellers were not homebodies,

He relates how Irish storytellers would turn their backs to the audience, or speak from another room in order that the listeners would rely on their imaginations. These types of storytellers would not rely on gestures, or voice inflections, but instead chose to paint a mental picture for their audiences who created vivid imagery in their own minds. The story was paramount to the teller. Lindahl laments that current storytellers have become enamored with their own performances and become as important to the tale as the tale itself. The “quiet, shyer world of the lone, quiet voice figures too rarely in folkloric performance studies.” Lindahl compares the true märchen tellers to the quilters who are more intrigued in the stitches of their work, and not the beautiful patterns or to the skilled basket weavers who focus on the intended use of the basket and not the aesthetic beauty of the weaving patterns (McCarthy xix-xx). In today’s society, the figure of a great storyteller evokes an image of gestures, voice inflections, voice impersonations provided by a colorful character. Perhaps our sensory overload from high definition televisions, streaming video, IMAX theaters have dulled our appreciation for the story itself, which is created in our own imaginations by a teller with skilled

Bolton published a list of Jack Tales specifically for beginning storytellers as well as a brief guide of how to be a storyteller. Bolton encourages would-be storytellers to be actors, to “ham up” the alliteration’, emphasize the sounds of the story and embrace the dialect. In a direct opposite manner of the Irish storytellers who would turn their backs to the audience, Bolton encourages constant eye contact and to alter the story based on the response of the audience such as downplaying or removing a violent scene if the audience contains children evidencing fear. Bolton believes these tales are best for small groups, particularly children, with encouraged audience interaction (Bolton