Folklore is a collection of stories passed down from generation to generation that include Legends, Myths, and Fairy Tales. Legends have some historical facts but are mostly exaggerated. Myths has to do with religion, such as Gods, demi-gods, and supernatural creatures. Fairy Tales have fantastic elements and magic has good vs. evil.American folklore refers to the traditional beliefs, myths, tales, and practices of a people's found from America. American lore values such consist of freedom, equality democracy, independence, strength, family, and wealth. All of these values come together to create a strong nation.
The significance of oral tradition in America comes from the language. America is an english-speaking country, therefore many
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U.S citizens are all talking the same as each other which signifies the oral tradition. The oral tradition of folklore shapes the culture by creating a specific language for each culture. The culture helps shapes folklore because it consists of many differences that define the meaning of folklore. Oral tradition is important for the growth of the community because it helped the community get together to increase the camaraderie, social skills, and intelligent as a whole. Without America’s oral tradition, it wouldn’t have a significant language. Without folklore, there really wouldn't be any change in the different cultures. Folklore specifies the different details about each culture and without it they would all be the same.Folklore and oral tradition relate to the culture I currently live in in many of ways. The oral tradition is a lot like the technological tradition, our youth has these days. Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and other social networks are our way of communicating as to talking. Johnny Appleseed and Davy Crockett are two American legends. Johnny Appleseed is a folk and a pioneer apple farmer in the 1800’s. Davy Crockett was a rugged frontiersman who befriended the Indians and helped keep the peace between them and the settlers. He was elected to Congress and, after losing a reelection bid, died a hero's death at The Alamo in 1836. These two legends are very different, but yet both had an impact on America. Johnny Appleseed and Davy Crocket reflect the culture by contributing in different ways to America. Davy Crockett was famed as a frontiersman, folk hero, congressman, and Alamo defender. Johnny Appleseed helped spread apples throughout America. The story of Davy Crockett, which was based off of David Crockett, who represented Tennessee in the U.S. house of representatives and served in the Texas Revolution. Johnny Appleseed, a pioneer apple farmer in the 1800’s, was based off of John Chapman. Superman and Batman are both American myths. Superman is the last son of the dead planet Krypton. As he grew up on Earth he discovered that he had fantastic powers of flight, speed, strength, and endurance of enhanced senses. Bruce Wayne is the Batman, a man with a mission to rid Gotham of the Evil that holds it. Those in the suburbs and country consider him as an urban legend. Both of these American created myths reflect the culture’s foundation of freedom. While villains become a metaphor for the oppressive evils of the world, the hero's represent the constant fight to maintain freedom of all Americans. The American values that are evident within the superhero stories show that with freedom you have the rights of life, liberty, and happiness. Myths are next to impossible to verify because once they are passed down from generation to generation facts will change and the story is altered. The oral tradition contributed to the widespread belief that superheroes walk along man because back in the day nobody had proof of their existence. In oral tradition the same story is told by multiple people and then taken as truth. The Ugly Duckling and The Salem Witch Trials are both American fairy tales.
The Ugly Duckling is a story of a swan born into a family of duck who is cast out of the pond because the other animals believe believe such an “ugly duckling” doesn’t belong with them. The Salem Witch Trials began in the Spring of 1962 after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcrafts. Both fairy tales have a storyline reflecting to the American culture. The Ugly Duckling and The Salem Witch Trials reflect the culture by depicting the fear of the unknown. The values expressed in these fairy tales would be superstitions, conformity, and self esteem. The oral tradition contributed to the widespread belief in imaginary creatures or magic with rumors and stories heard since …show more content…
childhood. An archetype is the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based.
The hero’s journey is a pattern of narrative identified by the American scholar Joseph Campbell that appears in drama, storytelling, myth, religious ritual, and psychological development. Without conflict there is no entertainment or lessons learned. The hero’s journey fits into folklore by allowing the hero to play different roles along the way. Superman goes through his own archetypal hero’s journey beginning with the stage of the ordinary world where he is a boy living in the country with his adopted parents. The second stage, the call to adventure, is when the boy Clark Kent figures out that he is not like other people and can use his powers for good. Meeting with the mentor is the stage where Clark learns from his father about life and what it means to be a good man. When Clark grows up, he moves to Metropolis to work as a reporter where he fights crime on the side. As superman is a continuous story that entertains people over the time he will continuously go through the stage of test allies and enemies. Superman’s journey is significant because he was just an ordinary boy who discovered his awesome powers. The journey helps the reader connect to the story because of real life problems that Superman faces that they can relate
to. While researching I found legends, myths, and fairy tales, I noticed all of them were looking into the face of diversity.
One of the turning points of the war was in 1777, when the British surrendered at Saratoga with over 5,500 troops. After General Horatio Gates and General John Burgoyne came in conflict, but the latter understood that supplies were lackluster, they had to surrender. This battle would result in France entering the loop of the war and siding with the Americans, attacks from out of Canada would be secured and New England isolation would be all prevented because of this battle.
The Salem Witch Trials occurred from 1692 to 1693. When two girls, aged 9 and 11, started having strange and peculiar fits, the Puritans believed that the cause of these actions was the work of the devil. The children accused three women of afflicting them: Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne. Tituba was a Caribbean slave owned by the Parris family. Sarah Good was a homeless woman. Sarah Osborne was a poor elderly woman. Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good pleaded innocent. Tituba admitted, “The Devil came to me and bid me serve him.” She described seeing red cats, yellow birds, black dogs, and a black man who asked her to sign his “book”. She confessed to signing the book. All three wo...
The author of this book has proposed an intriguing hypothesis regarding the seventeenth-century witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Laurie Winn Carlson argues that accusations of witchcraft were linked to an epidemic of encephalitis and that it was a specific form of this disease, encephalitis lethargica, that accounts for the symptoms suffered by the afflicted, those who accused their neighbors of bewitching them. Though this interpretation of the Salem episode is fascinating, the book itself is extremely problematic, fraught with historical errors, inconsistencies, contradictions, conjecture, and a very selective use of the evidence.
“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”, Exodus 22:18. In 1692 , in Salem Massachusetts , the Puritans believed everything in the bible, they also believed in witches and that witches should not be able to live.There were at least 3 causes for the Salem witch trial hysteria. There are: age, gender, and marital status , lying girls, and a divided town.
The Salem Witch trials were when hundreds of citizens of Salem, Massachusetts were put on trial for devil-worship or witchcraft and more than 20 were executed in 1692. This is an example of mass religion paranoia. The whole ordeal began in the home of Reverend Samuel Parris. People soon began to notice strange behavior from Parris’s slave, Tituba, and his daughters. Many claimed to have seen Parris’s daughters doing back magic dances in the woods, and fall to the floor screaming hysterically. Not so long after, this strange behavior began to spread across Salem.
During the time of the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692, more than twenty people died an innocent death. All of those innocent people were accused of one thing, witchcraft. During 1692, in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts many terrible events happened. A group of Puritans lived in Salem during this time. They had come from England, where they were prosecuted because of their religious beliefs. They chose to come live in America and choose their own way to live. They were very strict people, who did not like to act different from others. They were also very simple people who devoted most of their lives to God. Men hunted for food and were ministers. Women worked at home doing chores like sewing, cooking, cleaning, and making clothes. The Puritans were also very superstitious. They believed that the devil would cause people to do bad things on earth by using the people who worshiped him. Witches sent out their specters and harmed others. Puritans believed by putting heavy chains on a witch, that it would hold down their specter. Puritans also believed that by hanging a witch, all the people the witch cast a spell on would be healed. Hysteria took over the town and caused them to believe that their neighbors were practicing witchcraft. If there was a wind storm and a fence was knocked down, people believed that their neighbors used witchcraft to do it. Everyone from ordinary people to the governor’s wife was accused of witchcraft. Even a pregnant woman and the most perfect puritan woman were accused. No one in the small town was safe. As one can see, the chaotic Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 were caused by superstition, the strict puritan lifestyle, religious beliefs, and hysteria.
Salem Massachusetts became the center of a horrible tragedy, which changed the life of many people. It was a hard time, because of the bad crops and diseases. The people in Salem had to blame someone or something. This people accused innocent people by calling them witches. They were accused by having contact with the devil, hurting people, to pinch people on their bodies and more. These actions were result of hysteria. Maybe those extraneous symptoms were result of an illness or bacteria. On the Bible says “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” This mean that any type of witch or curse will not live, so I think that quote or versus in the Bible want to explain that we need to fight against the devil, those people who are practicing witchcraft need to be light, to be with God. Those people were confused because is not necessary to kill innocent people and the Bible says that if someone kills is a sin.
Witchcraft has been present in many other religions, not only the Puritan religion. Witchcraft was also found in Catholic and Protestant parts of Europe. The Salem Witch Trials were smaller in comparison to those in Scotland, France, or Germany (Hall 3). Though the trials in Salem were smaller, people recognize the Salem Witch Trials as one of the worst times in American history (“Witch Madness” 4). The Puritans believed that the Devil was alive in their community (“Witch Madness” 2). The accusations started in February 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts when young Puritan girls were found using magic. The Salem Witch Trials began when Betty Paris, Abigail Williams, and some of their friends began to act strange with odd fits (Hall 1). Because many mental and emotional disorders were not understood, the people of Salem believed it was the work of witchcraft. When sickness or even misfortune came, the most
In the modern day it’s hard to believe there’s even still ‘’witch hunts’’ as you can say where a group of people are stereotyped as something without them doing the actual stereotypical thing. We live in a world where blacks are getting shot for no reason when they were just walking down the street unarmed and not harming anyone. Blacks and Latinos are always looked down upon in any shape or form. They could be driving a nice car they get pulled over for suspicion of a stolen car, they can get pulled over in an old broken car and they will get pulled over for suspicion of ‘’criminal activity’’. But if it’s a white person the cops will NOT bat a single eye at them despite being in the same situations as the black. And you know what the problem
American folklores are used to refer to American traditional beliefs and folk knowledge and culture are mostly legends. There are many very famous/ well known stories that many children are familiar with. American values are reflected in the culture’s folklore by including myths, legends, and fairy tales that use the “American Dream” as a reference in the stories.
The Salem Witch Trials took place in the summer and into the fall of the year 1692, and during this dark time of American history, over 200 people had been accused of witchcraft and put in jail. Twenty of these accused were executed; nineteen of them were found guilty and were put to death by hanging. One refused to plead guilty, so the villagers tortured him by pressing him with large stones until he died. The Salem Witch Trials was an infamous, scary time period in American history that exhibited the amount of fear people had of the devil and the supernatural; the people of this time period accused, arrested, and executed many innocent people because of this fear, and there are several theories as to why the trials happened (Brooks).
During the early winter of 1692 two young girls became inexplicably ill and started having fits of convulsion, screaming, and hallucinations. Unable to find any medical reason for their condition the village doctor declared that there must be supernatural forces of witchcraft at work. This began an outbreak of hysteria that would result in the arrest of over one hundred-fifty people and execution of twenty women and men. The madness continued for over four months.
There are some events in history that put the human race to shame; however, these occasions can change our future forever. Society cannot deny that social injustices occur almost every day, maybe even more than once. One large blemish in our history, the Salem Witch Trials, alienated a certain group in our society. These trials were an unfortunate combination of economic conditions, a flock’s strife, teenage boredom, and personal jealousies.
Folklore is very important on a culture relating to legends, myths and fairy tales. The generations will keep telling the legends, myths and fairytales to the next
Folklore is the study of culture, customs and beliefs based on the tradition of a society. In Victorian England an interest in folklore emerged with the official creation of The Folk-Lore Society, which published a journal and held meetings and lectures regularly. Although Thomas Hardy included folklore in his writing, there is no evidence of his affiliation with this society.