Have you ever read a ghost story by a campfire or during a power outage and wondered; “Is this actually real?” Although you may not find out, you can say that in “Ghost Handprints,” “Llorona, Omen of Death,” and “The Grave,” you will see why most American folklore stories are not important to retell and remember since they do not have a moral lesson, have little to no historical value, and may scare children to the point where they develop a phobia. In American folktales, one will generally find a story about ghosts, murder, or death. The story “Ghost Handprints” talks about a couple saved by a group of ghost children. According to the story; “The tracks between Villamain and Shane Road was the place where a school bus full of children had stalled on the tracks. Everyone that boarded the bus had been killed by an oncoming freight train.” In the story, the children’s ghosts haunted the tracks, but there is no moral to the story. According to the story “Llorona, Omen of Death,” La Llorona’s spirit was forced to wander the waterways. This ghost story does not try to teach morality. Nevertheless, some American folklore stories may try to teach some morality. …show more content…
Along with that, these stories have been shown to have little to no historical value. This is shown in “Llorona, Omen of Death.” This is a story with no clear or specific origin. This story tells us what happened to La Llorona, but does not tell us what life was like at the time this story happened, nor does it tell us anything about the place the story happened. “The Grave” is another story that has no specific or clear origin. This story does not mention what time or place it happened, nor does it give information on what life was like at the time. This information shows that it has little to no historical value, considering it has no clear
"New Mexico: Ghost Stories and Haunted Places." Haunted New Mexico. Retrieved 5 Apr 2005 http://hauntednewmexico.tripod.com/id1.html.
The telling of a ghost story entails more than the text itself. Lighting, environment, tone of voice, and many other factors affect how well a ghost story is told. As one can see by reading the following story, simply reading a ghost story on paper does not have the same effect as hearing it performed by the teller in a fitting atmosphere. The following story was told one night in a dark, shadowy room filled with five or six college guys. The teller used long pauses, emphasis on certain words, and body gestures to make the story all the more believable and chilling.
Every story, every book, every legend, every belief and every poem have a reason and a background that creates them. Some might be based on historical events, some might be based on every culture´s beliefs, and some others might be based on personal experiences of the authors. When a person writes a literary piece, that person is looking for a way to express her opinion or her feelings about a certain situation. A good example is the poem “Southern Mansion” by Arna Bonptems. The main intention of “Southern Mansion” could have been to complain, or to stand against the discrimination and exploitation of black people throughout history. However, as one starts to read, to avoid thinking about unnatural beings wandering around the scene that is depicted is impossible. The poem “Southern Mansion” represents a vivid image of a typical ghost story which includes the traditional element of the haunted house. This image is recreated by the two prominent and contradictory elements constantly presented through the poem: sound and silence. The elements are used in two leading ways, each one separate to represent sound or silence, and together to represent sound and silence at the same time. The poem mixes the two elements in order to create the spooky environment.
When someone hears the word “ghost”, what comes to their mind? Do they think of ghost stories like The Shining, Casper the Friendly Ghost, or Field Mice and Buffalo? How about the gory murder mysteries where a ghost comes back to haunt their murderer? Well has anyone ever thought about something as simple as a ghost story leading to someone being obsessed to the point of insanity? When I say obsessed, I don’t mean obsessed like scared; I mean “obsessed” as in a sense of possession or an obscene liking of. In Oke of Okehurst the author demonstrates how obsession drives William and Alice Oke to insanity.
A Guatemalan native, a male graduate student that I work with in my research group at the University told this story. He came from the countryside, living in a small village back home. According to him, the story of La Llorona, involving a weeping woman, arose sometime in the 1700s and became well known both at school and home. Some claimed to have actually seen the weeping woman. Some disregard it as unscientific and implausible. No one is sure of the exact origin of this urban legend. This story was told to me and another graduate student in our research group while sitting in lab waiting for the experiment results. The story began as we started sharing our own background and the culture of our own countries when the storyteller decided to make a little shift and started to tell a story told to him by his older cousin--the story of La Llorona:
The original story by Washington Irving starts out in a small town of Sleepy Hollow. Irving paints an image of bountiful crops, beautiful scenery, and prosperous landowners. Ichabod Crane was a local pedagogue, who taught at the local schoolhouse. He was known for his strict ways and yet he was very popular amongst the families of his students- especially the ones who had ?pretty sisters.? Ichabod enjoyed spending fall evenings with the old widows as they sat by a fire and told stories of ghosts and demons and other supernatural beings. One story that was always told was one of the legendary Headless Horsemen. The tale tells of a soldier who had his head shot off with a cannon ball. His ghost now roamed Sleepy Hollow on his horse, looking for his lost head. In place of his head, sits a jack-o-lantern, which had a fiery glow.
When the book was published during the Victorian era, little to no emphasis was based on the idea of mental health. The majority of readers claimed this as a ghost story with nothing more. When researched and analyzed, it is clear that the story is a mentally
In this case, we are focusing on the story written by Washington Irving. The story is about a man named Ichabod Crane who moves to a village called Sleepy Hollow located in New York, to become a teacher. Sleepy Hollow is apparently a very supernatural place where many ghost encounters occur. This generates many ghost stories around the area as well. Ichabod, while teaching, meets a woman named Katrina Van Tassel who is not only pretty, but very wealthy as well. Both of these things strike Ichabod and he realizes that he along with Katrina could become very wealthy. The only thing standing in his way is Brom, whom is a big boned man. While they both compete over Katrina they are invited to a family gathering at her house where they tell ghost stories about the famous headless horseman. Time passes and Ichabod stays longer to get some one on one time with Katrina. But she was too busy visiting with another man. This enraged Ichabod as he left the house, yet this night felt different and uneasy. His recollection of all the ghost stories start to come back to him and his horse becomes uneasy. All of the sudden the headless horseman appeared behind Ichabod. The next morning Ichabod disappeared and was never to be seen again. Some say that Ichabod haunts the school he taught at while others argue that he is still alive. Thus, “The Legend of Sleepy
An interesting aspect of the story is that it incorporates an actual location and history into a ghost story: it is intriguing because the mysterious events occur in an accessible place that people can go and visit.
The narratives that we find in this story are always set in the most everyday reality, in a daily routine that apparently has nothing special. Until everything changes. Although we do not find in these stories supernatural elements or the characteristics of horror stories. Perhaps because it is responsible for teaching us the terrible
In the horror genre, there are many concepts that can contribute to horrifying the audience. A common fear for most is the fear of the unknown or that of which cannot be seen such as what lies beyond the world people cannot see. It can raise question of what may cross the line into ghosts or "supernatural" territory. There could be tons of reasons as to why something could be portrayed as haunted. In the film The Shining by Stephen King, the Overlook Hotel calls to Jack Torrance to come back to the hotel and fulfill his duty as caretaker of that hotel. Jack's son Danny even experiences extrasensory perception within the hotel. There are several tales of angry spirits coming back to reap havoc among those who have crossed it. A tale such as this is “The Queen of Spades” written by Aleksandr Pushkin, Hermann relentlessly searches for a way to make a quick buck, even goes as far as to pull a gun on an old woman ultimately killing her. The old Countess comes forth to wreak her revenge to a greedy person. Supernatural motif is everywhere in these tales because there comes a time where one can no longer just blame the psyche of one's own mind.
Dealing with the problem of learning difficulties in children's books, Theresa Breslin's excellent book “Whispers in the Graveyard (1994)” is chosen to represent children's dyslexia while “The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler (1977)” written by Gene Kemp is the other selection related to a late developer. Based on the research, there are some features often identified in children with learning difficulties: being teased or bullied, misbehaviours, and the lack of self-confidence (Prater, 2003: 58). These three elements can be found in both cases, indicating these features are general situations that happen in children’s school times.
This story, although somewhat unique in its exact plot, contains many elements that make it a typical and traditional ghost story. These elements suggest common fears in today’s society of people in general, and children specifically.
It might have been the remnants of an ancient ritual that points to the pre-Christian past of Europe, or it might just be a good old fashion horror story used to scare its listeners. Whatever its origins, “The Juniper Tree” is dark and bleak to the point that many who read it for the first time cannot believe it is included in a collection of stories meant for children, but when placed under closer scrutiny, it becomes quite clear that many of those stories, including “The Juniper Tree” were not told with a particular children’s audience in
Are you male? Do you feel like women are oppressing you? Fret not! That is why we have Meninism! What is meninism?