During my JEP assignment, my group asked our second grade students to tell us scary stories that they had heard of outside of school. The first story came from a student who told the story of the Chupacabra, a scary creature from Mexico. She described it as a really tall half-man, half-animal creature that comes out at night in the woods in Mexico and kidnaps whoever is nearby. She claimed that the Chupacabra has many arms, and is similar to the video game character Slenderman. She said she learned this story from her mother, who warned her not to go into the woods in fear of that the Chupacabra might find her. She heard the story first when she was on vacation, visiting family in Mexico. She likes this story because she likes scary stories and thinks it is funny to scare her friends with it.

After hearing her story, I can assume it was told to her as a cautionary tale from her mother, which is a common theme within scary folklore provided to children. I think that these stories are effective in teaching children about what not to do in order to keep them safe. I think it is interesting that she told this version of the Chupacabra character, as I personally have heard it (and other students in her class have heard it) differently than what she told. I have heard that the Chupacabra is a smaller, hog-like animal that is vicious, but her version includes a man-like creature with many arms. This could possibly be to reflect the fear that her mother has of her daughter interacting with people—particularly men—that she does not know. The difference in versions of the stories reflects what the storytellers want to get out of their audience. In this case, her mother wanted to scare her into avoiding wandering around the woods while they were in Mexico, away from her normal surroundings.

During my JEP assignment, my group asked our second grade students to tell us scary stories that they had heard of outside of school. This story came from a student who told us of a personal ghost he has seen and heard about named Grandmother Theresa. He informed me that this is a ghost that lives in his house and watches over him to make sure he behaves well. He explained that Grandmother Theresa is a transparent ghost who floats around carrying a long stick—one side made of metal and one side with a pillow attached. He claims that if any children in the house are being really bad, Grandmother Theresa will hit you with the metal rod. If anyone is just being moderately bad, Grandmother Theresa will hit you with the pillow as a warning. He also told another student, who is notorious for causing ruckus in the class, that the ghost would come to his house too if he continued to behave poorly.

This student learned the story of Grandmother Theresa from his mother after he had behaved particularly badly and disrespectfully. He claims that since he has known about this scary figure, his behavior has improved. I believe that his mother told him this legend in order for him to behave better and understand that if he behaved poorly, he would be punished (without having to actually punish him). It is a cautionary tale in order to curb behavior. I think that this tactic has worked in the case of the student, for he has a large fear of this Grandmother Theresa figure. This student has tried to convince other students of the existence of this figure, especially because he claims to have seen her appear in his house to him before. I think this case shows how impressionable children are.

Background Information: Informant is 22 year old student in the Southern California area, originally from Southern New Jersey. This piece of folklore has to do with the Sasquatch, or Bigfoot, who is a legendary pseudo-monster humanoid creature who is occasionally said to be sighted in various forests around North America in particular. This legendary creature does not seem to have an obvious task in life, but in my research has been said to appear in the woods and vanish just as fast. My informant claims not to have seen the Sasquatch, but the story was part of her childhood, and connected to her local area, which was densely forested.

Main Piece: My informant is a 22 year old student, originally from the Southern New Jersey area. She was brought up near a relatively densely forested area. At the age of 9, she was told the legend that Bigfoot lived in the woods as follows. Bigfoot, or as they called him, the Sasquatch, was a bipedal monster who lived in the woods and occasionally ate the people who came into the forest at night. He was about ten feet tall and looked like a large man with mid-length brown fur. His feet were ginormous, and the kids often claimed to see one of his footprints.  He was said to walk hunched over, and could run on all fours at incredible speeds. He particularly liked to eat children that wandered into the woods. My informant tells me that Bigfoot stories are popular in southern New Jersey as certain areas are densely forested.  After hearing this story, she refused to go into the woods for many years and wouldn’t even go if she had someone with her. As an adult, she was curious to explore these woods and she says that she didn’t see anything resembling a Bigfoot, even at night, nor did she expect to. Yet, she doesn’t totally disbelieve the legend, and says that she is still strangely wary when in the woods alone. She also described the Yeti as the “snow-version” of Bigfoot, a kind of sub-species which exists in predominantly snowy regions of Asia, such as the Himalaya mountains.

My thoughts:

The legend format plays on suspension of belief. Often the most interesting thing about legends is that they might be true. This legend, popularized amongst children, plays on the local landscape to add credence to its claim. This is common in legends. What is also common is the fluid level of belief. When my informant was a child, she believed in the Sasquatch, whereas as an adult she says that she doesn’t disbelieve it. Likewise, belief in a Sasquatch is much more justified in a heavily forested area than at a beach, and the belief level of the informant changes between her age, and also based on whether or not she is firstly in the woods, and then whether she is there with someone. There is also a sense that the story may act as a warning children to not go into the woods late at night alone, much like the La Llorana legend discourages children in areas with a Spanish influence from wandering around alone at night.

For the Yeti version of the Sasquatch, see here: http://www.livescience.com/25072-yeti-abominable-snowman.html