Author Archives: Connor Wilson

Tom and Jerry

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: California
Performance Date: April 26, 2017
Primary Language: English

“When me and my brother were younger, and even still to this day, my grandfather compares us to Tom & Jerry.  Like the cartoon, Tom & Jerry.  But it’s not just for me and my brother, he believes every pair of siblings follows that dynamic.  Like the younger one being like Jerry and always fooling around and bothering the older one, Tom, who’s just trying to ignore the younger sibling.  It’s probably because that’s the way he was with his younger brother and he likes to think everyone’s the same as him.”

ANALYSIS:

It’s interesting that this folk belief is based around someone’s experiences with watching a cartoon.  Because of the informant’s grandfather noticing a parallel between his own life and the lives of his grandchildren and two characters in a cartoon show, the grandfather made an assumption about the entire human population, which I find really funny, and honestly not entirely inaccurate; I definitely understand where the grandfather is coming from, as I do believe that me and my own older brother follow this dynamic as well.  I wonder in the creators of Tom & Jerry based the cartoon off of a prominent sibling dynamic they noticed, or just thought Tom & Jerry were funny characters and that’s all.

A Superstitious Fear of Crowds

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Luxembourg
Performance Date: April 26, 2017
Primary Language: English

“Whenever me and my family go places, we always avoid big crowds because we have this superstition that only bad things can come from crowds.  I don’t really know why we ever started avoiding crowds so vigilantly, but now we make it a point to never be around a big crowd, especially in places we aren’t familiar with.  It’s a family superstition we take very seriously.  So, when I was in Nice, there were a lot of big crowds and I didn’t feel comfortable, and I didn’t feel safe, so I told my girlfriend that we should leave, so we did.  As we were walking away we started to see people running behind us, and then someone told us to run, and then we heard shooting.  That was the day of the Nice terror attack.  And if we hadn’t left because of our fear of crowds, we would’ve been right in the middle of the attack.  Then, a year later, we were visiting London, but because it was right in the middle of tourist season we were always around crowds, so we left early.  Two days after we left, there was a terrorist attack.  And if we had stayed in London for our entire planned trip, we would have been there for it.  Now I think it’s a good thing we have our superstition, it’s saved us a few times.”

ANALYSIS:

This is a really interesting case of a superstition being validated by random events that seem to have meaning.  What I find really fascinating about superstitions is that, no matter a person’s background, upbringing, or beliefs, they are probably superstitious about one thing or another.  Everyone is susceptible to believing in a superstition simply because sometimes certain events happen in a person’s life that are seemingly undeniable, and that’s probably the source of their superstition.

There Was a King

Nationality: Indian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: New Delhi
Performance Date: April 26, 2017
Primary Language: Hindi (urdu)
Language: English, French

“Ek thaa raja.  Ek thee rani.  Dono margaye.  Khatam kahaani.”

That is a folk story in Hindi which roughly translates to:

“There was a king.  There was a queen.  They both died.  End of story.”

CONTEXT:

“When I was young I always wanted to hear a bedtime story before bed, but on nights when my parents didn’t feel like reading me a real one they would tell me that terrible story instead and then leave before I could ask for another one.  I hated it growing up, but now I do the same thing all the time to my little sister whenever she asks me for a bedtime story.”

ANALYSIS:

What I especially like about this piece of folklore is how quickly it was passed down from the parents to the informant and then from the informant to the little sister.  It shows a very clear lineage of the folklore, which is what folklore’s all about.  There’s also a very unique and self-aware sense of humor to this piece that I find really charming and wish I saw in more pieces of folklore today.

The Monkey and the Wedge

Nationality: Indian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: New Delhi
Performance Date: April 27, 2017
Primary Language: Hindi (urdu)
Language: English, French

“So this is a classic Panchatantra story my mother would read to me as a kid.  So one day, a worker was cutting a big log in half, but when lunchtime came and he wasn’t finished cutting the log in half, he put a wedge between the two sides of the log so that it wouldn’t close up.  But then a monkey came down to the log to play, and once he got curious about the wedge, he pulled the wedge out of the log while he was between the two sides of the log that the worker was cutting, and now, with the wedge gone, the log closed up and crushed the monkey.  It’s kind of a dark story, because I think that would kill the monkey, but I don’t ever remember him dying in the story when I was growing up, so I don’t know what’s true and what isn’t.”

ANALYSIS:

This is a really interesting story because the informant is right: the log closing up would definitely kill the monkey, but because the informant was a child when his mother read it to him before bed, his mother most likely left out that part, as it would be hard for a child to fall asleep after hearing that.  I think this speaks to the inherent nature of folklore, that it has multiplicity and variation.  Folklore can go through countless adjustments as time wears on, and a mother adjusting a story for their child so it’s more kid-friendly is just one of the many ways folklore could undergo change.

The Jackal and the Drum

Nationality: Indian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: New Delhi
Performance Date: April 27, 2017
Primary Language: Hindi (urdu)
Language: English, French

“So there’s this Panchatantra story my mother read me when I was younger about a Jackal.  So this Jackal was wondering this field looking for food when he heard this terrible and loud and scary noise.  The Jackal wanted to run away, and did for a little bit, until he realized that he should find the source of the noise before he decides if he should be scared of it.  So, the Jackal takes all the courage he has and approaches the source of the noise, and finds out it’s just some branches scraping against a drum.  And right next to the drum that the Jackal was so scared of was a ton of food and water for the Jackal that he never would have found if he had run.  My mother always told this story to encourage me to be more brave like the Jackal was, and I really appreciate her for doing that for me.”

ANALYSIS:

This is a great piece of folklore because the informant not only remembers the story extremely well, but also remembers the meaning behind the story.  I think the meaning behind the folklore is one of the most important parts of folklore, and whenever I see that an informant remembers only the folklore story but not the meaning or lesson behind it, it saddens me.  So, naturally, this piece of folklore really uplifted me because the informant took the lesson behind the folklore and really held onto it tightly, something I think that should be done more often.