Category Archives: Narrative

Adam Walsh

Text

“Growing up in Miami Florida, I was around 7 when a local boy named Adam Walsh disappeared and was found decapitated in a canal. It shook the whole community. No one had seen anything like this at the time so every kid in South Florida was terrified to leave their homes. I remember I was attached at the hip to my parents for a while after.”

Context

My informant grew up in Miami, Florida, and was around seven years old when Adam Walsh, a local child, was abducted and murdered in 1981. The case had an enormous impact on South Florida and eventually on the entire country, since it led to John Walsh’s career as a victims’ advocate and the creation of America’s Most Wanted. He remembers the event as a defining moment of his childhood, one that made him cling to his parents and changed how kids in his community moved through public space.

Analysis

This is a memorate, a personal narrative tied to a real event that has since taken on legendary weight in the community where it happened. The story is folkloric because of the way it lives on in memory and gets retold. For people who grew up in South Florida in the early 1980s, the Adam Walsh case functions almost like a generational origin story for fear: a shared reference point that explains why their childhood looked the way it did, why their parents suddenly became more protective, why they couldn’t ride bikes alone to the mall anymore. The informant’s memory of being “attached at the hip” to his parents isn’t just a personal detail, it’s an experience tons of South Florida kids his age would recognize.

Senior pranks- Tradition

Prank: Goldfish in the Amphitheater

Text:

Informant: “Someone way before us did this, and it became kind of a legend because it was so crazy. My school had this Greek-style amphitheater that was basically a lower area, like a pit, and it was probably about five feet deep. Apparently one graduating class decided to do their senior prank there. In the middle of the night they filled the whole amphitheater with water and put a bunch of goldfish in it. The next day everyone showed up and was like, ‘What the heck?’ I have no idea exactly when it happened. It must have been in the late 2000s or early 2010s. Eventually the school had to drain the water and all the goldfish died.”

Interviewer: “How did you hear about the goldfish prank? Does everyone know it?”

Informant: “Everyone knows it. And then I would tell other people about it as the craziest prank I knew about. I don’t even know if it really happened, it was just something people said. Everyone agreed it was the best graduating prank that ever happened.”

Context:

The informant heard about this prank at their high school, where the story circulated widely among students as part of the school’s shared culture. According to the informant, the prank was said to have been carried out by a graduating class sometime in the late 2000s or early 2010s, before the informant attended the school. Although the informant did not witness the event and is unsure whether it actually occurred, the story was commonly told among students and was often described as the most extreme senior prank in the school’s history.

Analysis:

These pranks usually occur right before graduation, a transition period when seniors are about to become graduates. This time can be stressful as students finish classes, exams, and prepare to leave school, so pranks can serve as an outlet to release tension. They become both a way to leave a final mark on the school and an act of rebellion. At the same time, organizing and carrying out a prank can unite the graduating class by giving them a shared goal and experience before they leave. In this sense, senior pranks function somewhat like a rite of passage, allowing students to assert their independence and mark the end of their time at the school through a visible and memorable act.

Senior pranks also reflect the folkloric concepts of multiplicity and variation. While the tradition itself exists at many schools, the specific prank changes depending on the graduating class. Each class attempts to create something memorable, often using recognizable parts of the school’s infrastructure or shared spaces, which leads to different versions of the prank across grades and schools.

In this case, the story about the goldfish prank also takes on the form of a legend because it continues to circulate even though the informant is unsure whether it actually happened. The exact time and details remain unclear, yet the story is still widely known among students and passed down to underclassmen because of its extremity. Over time, stories like this become part of the school’s folklore, as repeated retelling keeps the event alive within the folk group.

Onam- Indian Festival

Age: 22

Text:
Informant: “Onam is a festival about King Mahabali returning to visit his people once every year. One thing people do is make pookalam, which are flower carpets placed at the entrance of the house to welcome Mahabali. My grandma makes them and that’s where I first saw them. People usually get together to make one and it can take two to three hours. There’s also a big meal called Onasadya which we eat for lunch. People sit in rows with a banana leaf in front of them and volunteers serve the food. Someone will bring a big bucket of rice and scoop it onto everyone’s leaf, then another person comes and gives things like bananas. Everything is vegetarian and there is 25 different dishes, the number of dishes is important and you eat with your hands. There’s also boat races called Vallamkali with 100-foot snake boats. I’ve watched them on TV before.”

Interviewer: “How long have you been celebrating Onam?”
Informant: “Pretty much since I was a kid, maybe when I was six or eight. My family celebrates it and that’s how I learned about it. I don’t celebrate it as much anymore, but my parents still celebrate it.”

Context:
The informant grew up in India and learned about and participated in Onam through family celebrations during childhood. Their first encounter with the traditions was watching their grandmother prepare pookalam flower designs at home. The informant explained that their family regularly celebrated the festival when they were around age six or eight. Although the informant does not celebrate Onam as frequently now that they have moved to America, their parents still celebrate in India.

Analysis:
Onam is an example of festival folklore, which combines storytelling, ritual practices, food traditions, and communal gatherings. The festival is centered around the legend of King Mahabali and his annual return, showing how narratives help explain and structure cultural celebrations. The traditions practiced during Onam also express important Indian cultural values such as hospitality, cooperation, and community. Activities like making pookalam or sharing the Onasadya meal require many people working in tandem, which turns the festival into a collective experience rather than an individual one. The large vegetarian meal served on banana leaves and eaten in rows reinforces a sense of equality, since everyone receives the meal in the same way.

女娲补天 (Nuwa repairs the Sky)- Chinese Myth

Text: 女娲补天 (Nǚwā bǔ tiān)- translated to English as “Nuwa repairs the sky”

Informant: “In ancient times there was a water god and a fire god who were in war with each other. The water god lost, and in his anger he crashed into the huge columns that supported the sky. In ancient Chinese belief, the sky was supported by giant mountain-like pillars so when the columns broke, the sky collapsed and everything fell apart. There were floods everywhere, fires burning, and people were dying. So there was a female goddess named Nuwa who saw all the humans suffering and wanted to save them. She found special stones and used fire to melt them down to patch the hole in the sky. Then she needed something to support the patched sky, so she fought a giant turtle monster that was as tall as a mountain. After beating him, she cut off its four legs and used them as four pillars to hold up the sky. Also during this time, because of the floods and destruction, many other monsters appeared on earth. Nuwa fought all these dragons and monsters and defeated them, finally restoring peace and order to the world.”

Context:

The informant explained that they first learned the story of Nuwa repairing the sky in elementary school through children’s picture books.

Analysis:

Stories like Nuwa repairing the sky belong to a group of sacred narratives that explain how the world came to be ordered the way it is. Unlike folktales, myths are not constantly invented or changed. They tend to become canonical stories that are repeated over long periods of time and eventually written down, often becoming closely tied to religion or cultural tradition.

The story also demonstrates the concept of multiplicity and variation. Many cultures have different myths about how the world was created or repaired after catastrophe. The flooding and destruction in this story are similar to flood narratives found in other traditions, such as the biblical flood story. While the details differ, these stories address similar questions about why disasters happen and how order is restored. Because events like the formation of the world or large natural disasters are difficult to explain, folklore often emerges to help societies make sense of the unknown. In this sense, myths function as early cultural explanations for the natural world, helping people understand chaotic events.

Ghost at Winchester Mystery House- Folk Legend

Age: 20

Text:

Informant: “One time I went and visited the Winchester mystery house when I was 12 and the tour guide was telling us different stories of things people have witnessed while being in that house. And so one of the stories was that in the living room there was a fireplace and one of the men that worked there was a wheelbarrow guy and helped clean up. In the middle of the night, you can see his ghost cleaning the fireplace very rarely.”

Interviewer: “What is his ghost supposed to look like?”
Informant: “His ghost is covered in the ash.”

Interview: “Did you see the ghost or experience any paranormal activity yourself?”
Informant: “No, we went in the daytime.”

Context:

The informant heard this ghost story while visiting the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose with their family when they were about 12 years old.

Analysis:

This story is an example of a legend, a form of verbal folklore that takes place in the real world and is presented as something that could be believable or believed. The ghost of the wheelbarrow worker is tied to a specific location, the Winchester Mystery House, which helps make the story feel more realistic since there’s a tangible location already associated with anecdotes of experiences with paranormal activity. Legends are often connected to real places because the setting encourages listeners to question whether the event might actually be true.

At the same time, legends allow people to debate beliefs and explore uncertainty. Listeners may not fully believe the story, but they also may not completely dismiss it, and creating that sense of ambivalence that is central to how legends function. This specific tension between belief and skepticism encourages discussion about whether ghosts or supernatural events might exist. Even though the informant did not personally witness the ghost, sharing stories of reported sightings through tours or conversations help keep legends alive and continue to circulate and renew the legend for new audiences.