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Legend of sleepy hollow folktale
Essays about superstitions
Essays about superstitions
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Superstitious stories are harmful to our everyday lives because the spread ominous myths that were told by families and friends that causes us to think differently in fear. Superstitions can affect us terribly in many ways because they can make us frightened of what we want to commit on what activities we would want to do in our everyday lives. If you’re gullible, you’ll likely encounter terrifying supernatural beings that can possibly ruin your life because you can be affected by paranoia where you start to hear strange terrifying noises that would keep you in fear for rest of your life. Superstition can be lethal because most us fear death or bad luck from it which brings our mindset negative outcome.
Superstition are excessively credulous belief in and reverence for supernatural beings.(en.dictionary.reference.com) In the “legend of The Sleepy Hollow”, a guy named Ichabod Crane lived in little town called Sleepy Hollow, while he was a town teacher and choirmaster. One day Ichabod finds that the richest guy in town who has an only daughter that was very good looki...
In “We Aren’t Superstitious”, by Stephen Vincent Benet, the theme of accusation supports the superstitions for the Salem Witch Trials. Throughout the entire story, accusations are thrown left and right; Arguing on who is a witch and who isn’t. When Tituba arrived from the West Indies towards the beginning of the story, nobody could predict the mayhem she would unfold. The queer and interesting stories she told Elizabeth Parris later spread into the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Now, one doesn't know if this was part of her “evil voodoo-witch plan” or aimlessly come across, but it was catastrophic. The first individual to be accused of witchery was Sarah Good, who later was followed by Sarah Osborne. They were both accused of witchery because of their low social classes. Sarah Good was known as a whore and a beggar, while Sarah Osborne was married to a lower social class and was a horrible Christian. This accusation of the lower class portrays a lot of what happens today in the real world.
Ordinary religion shows people how to live well within boundaries, and concern themselves with living well in this current world, not in another. Ordinary religion promotes cultures, traditions, values, and common social acts. In contrast, extraordinary religion helps people to transcend beyond their ordinary culture and concerns, crosses the borders of life as we used to know it and seeks to new better place. It is also believed that people have chance to contact God through spiritual ceremonies and get helped by supernatural power. For instance, ceremonies and rituals of baptism and circumcision for infants, and conformations for adolescents, marriage, and funerals for the dead. Through these spiritual ceremonies, people are crossing the physical boundaries and reaching something supernatural that they believe will give them power to encounter challenges and difficulties during stages of life. There are three elements in religious belief developing most religions in America, which are fundamental, ritual, and tradition. The first element is the fundamental structures which are defined with a myth, philosophy, or theology and limited by the boundaries that create the basic ways in which people, cultures and communities imagine, define, and accept how things are and what they mean. A second essential element of religion is ritual. Rituals are a representative set of
Many cultures ascribe to some kind of superstition, magic, or faith. Merriam-Webster defines superstition as “a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation” ("Superstition”). This definition makes superstition sound like it belongs in a lower developed country that lacks the ability to have scientific knowledge. However, magic and superstition are alive and well in developed countries, such as the United States. Sports are rife with superstitions. Many players use “ritual, taboos, and fetishes to manage the anxiety generated by unpredictable events that challenge human control” (Gmelch 266). Superstitions are entirely psychological; a way to create a reason for an event that has occurred. In his article “Baseball Magic,” George Gmelch examines the rituals, taboos, and fetishes of American baseball and how they compare to the magic of the Trobriand Islanders.
Soldiers in the Vietnam War had to carry all of their belongings on their bodies with them over great distances of walking, earning Vietnam soldiers the nickname ‘Grunts’. Thus, they tried to limit their already grueling load as much as possible. In Tim O’Brien’s, The Things They Carried, he creates a detailed outline of the items carried by soldiers in the Vietnam War, which were “largely determined by necessity” (2). While most were out of necessity, the soldiers in the text also had many things that were strictly for personal reasons. The soldiers were already weighed down tremendously by their gear and weapons that were necessities, yet they chose to carry around the extra weight of seemingly useless objects. Some people carried objects
Witchcraft started in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Superstition started when women were accused of acting strangely. These superstitions turned into trials, and later lead to mounds of hanged people. Most of the people accused were innocent, but the harsh judge rulings left them with nothing to live for. The only options for the tried, no matter if guilty or not, were to claim guilty, living the rest of their life in prison, or to plead not guilty and hang. Due to both consequences being equally as punishable, many people isolated themselves from society. Unfortunately, some people caused the uprising of the salem witch trials more than others did. In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams single handedly attributed to the
Sagan said “more than a third of American adults believe that on some level they’ve made contact with the dead” (151). This figure is not hard to believe when one thinks about our need to believe in something greater than ourselves. People believe in superstitions and horoscopes because they want to believe in that something that is greater than themselves is
"Once upon a time" is the predictable beginning of a fairy tale and "happily ever after" is the ending. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving is a classical myth that defies the conventional standards of a fairy tale. Set in a valley in New England, It's a gothic tale of mystery and suspense that bears no definite ending surrounding the myth of the "Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow" (Heath 1355). The original text created by Irving was intended for the mature reader, a reader who could understand a sense of irony, had knowledge of history, and taste. What of and how has "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" remained successful with audiences through a period of over one hundred and seventy years? The changes implemented in the text vary by editor from none to several, to create a family movie few changes were taken by Disney, but to create a mainstream movie the changes made by Director Tim Burton are many.
An example of this would be the fortune telling hairball and the rattlesnake skin. Jim also states during the first few chapters that his body hair is a sign of his future wealth. The signs have no correlation to their meanings and seem ludicrous and silly to those reading about them. Another moment where superstitions became important would be after Jim and Huck Finn 's separation in the fog. When Huck Finn lies to Jim about their separation being a dream Jim begins to tell Huck his interpretation of the dream as a warning. It shows that to the superstitious, signs and meanings can be applied to everything and anything. Later on in the book, while helping Jim to escape, Tom and Huck Finn lie to Nat about odd occurrences caused by their plans. Because Nat is superstitious he is quick to blame witches and believes Tom and Huck Finn 's lies. This allows Tom 's overly complicated plans to take off without a
Irving, Washington. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Ed. Illustrated Arthur Rackham. United States: David McKay, 1928.
In the words of Bertrand Russell, “Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom” (Russell). Fear causes many problems in our lives. Fear influences many of a person’s actions and decisions. However, people usually regret the decisions or actions they made out of fear. Also, these actions and decisions can cause problems for those people in their future. Fear is a harmful emotion, for it clouds people’s judgement, disables them from taking action, and causes them to make decisions that they will regret later.
Imagination is one of the most unique and fascinating elements of the human mind. It is essentially using one’s mental abilities and memories to create specific imagery. This imagery helps people to be innovative, conceptualize, and come up with clever solutions to solve difficult problems. Imagination allows people to go outside of reality in order to envision ideas that they could not visualize otherwise. Without imagination, there would be very little originality and ingenuity. Unfortunately, people are slowly becoming less imaginative because of mind-numbing activities, society’s lack of encouraging creativity, and an educational system that emphasizes
Macbeth: Superstitions & nbsp; & nbsp; The tragedy of Macbeth was written by Shakespeare in 1606 and produced in 1610. Macbeth is the most concentrated of Shakespeare's tragedies. The action gushes forward with great speed from the beginning to the end. The main characters in the play are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, who are very noble, but their evil. ambition ultimately causes their downfall and death.
Many parents read fairy tales to their children. Young people are able to use their imaginations while listening to these fantastical stories. Filled with dragons, witches, damsels in distress, and heroes, these tales stay in the mind children for years to come. However, these young listeners are getting much more than a happy ending. Fairy tales such as "The Goose Girl", "The Three Little Pigs", "Cinderella", and "Snow White" one can find theories of psychology. Erik Erikson's theories of social development as well as Sigmund Freud's theory of the map of the mind and his controversial Oedipal complex can be found in many fairy tales. Within every fairy tale there lies a hidden lesson in psychology.
For example, a slave that Huckleberry and Tom talk to on their adventure, rather than used his problem solving skills to figure out that Huckleberry and Tom already knew, he automatically assumed it was witches. "Oh, it's de dad-blame' witches, sah..."(Twain, 237). If he had not believed in his superstition then, he would have figured out that something suspicious was up. Another time is when the slave is oblivious to what is going on when Huckleberry and Tom forgot to fasten the door and the dogs ended up getting into the house. “Mars Sid, you'll say I's a fool but if I din't b'lieve I see most a million dogs er devils, er some'n…”(Twain, 250). Once again, the slave blames it on the witches. Instead of thinking through the
They cause the mind to go off into a place where the child is actually with the characters, and not just reading about them. Having and creating a healthy mind involves several aspects. One should not expect their child to gain anything positive from a violent and evil fairy tale, except fear. Fear will not teach the child how to deal with or handle their problems. A contemporary fairy tale will teach them how to deal with their problems without scaring the children that heard or read these fairy tales. English writer G.K Chesterton stated, “Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed.” (Taylor, Melissa). Learning to deal with problems helps build a healthy and stable mind. Along with learning to deal with problems, children learn to read better as well. By them reading the more modern fairy tales, one book won’t suffice and they will want to read another one. Also it will cause them to explore what they are reading more and expand their knowledge on the subject. Like if a child is reading about dragons and are intrigued, then they will go read more about these dragons and start to open a whole new world of possibilities of what they could learn (“Influence of Fairy Tales on Life”). If the fairy tale scares the child, then there is no way they are going to want to pick up another one. So consequently, when you read a child the darker fairy tales, the knowledge growth is slowed down and that is unhealthy for their