Folklore Across Cultures

Many cultures around the world have different types of stories with diverse themes and various techniques.  Three tales I read were: “The Badger Names the Sun”, from Mexico, “La Corriveau”, from Canada, and “Cowboys in Heaven”, from Texas.  No matter what culture is being read, there will be different kinds of folklore tales.

Beginning with the different types of stories, these three folklore tales express the differences in their cultures.  The first story, “The Badger Names the Sun”, conveys the idea of the creation story.  How in the beginning of naming objects, such as the Sun, no one and no thing could think of a name for it.  As thinking and discussing fills the air, one figure finally assigns the name for the Sun.  However, in the second tale, “La Corriveau”, this tale emits a frightening kind of story.  With spirits, murder and hanging, it just describes a scary story.  Even though the third story deals with spirits, it is a humorous tale.  It pokes at an old Texan tall tale making fun of, “Cowboys in Heaven.”

The diverse themes for these tales state what the message is of the story.  The first story explains the reason for “knowing why.”  In the story, the badger names the sun then runs because he thinks the people want to punish him.  But, they want to praise him, and he gets scared and never comes out of his hole again.  So, know why something is happening.  Unlike the first story, the second story details to staying true to one person.  This lady, Marie-Josephet, married a man, but she didn’t like him after a while.  So, she killed him, and got away with it.  She then married again, and as last time she got tired of him so she killed him also.  But this time she got caught and was sentenced to death by hanging.  The message for this one is don’t envy and you won’t get hung.  Nevertheless, the third tall tale reveals a funny more interesting message.  Don’t try to leave Heaven to go back to Texas.  If you try, you will be corralled like broncos.

Whereas types of stories and themes help explain the tales, techniques are what really show how parts of the story are told.  The first story shows the technique of personification.  The badger’s ability to speak is called personification, or a metaphor that gives inanimate objects, animals, or abstract ideas human characteristics.  In contrast, “La Corriveau”, uses the technique of foreshadowing, or the use of hints or clues in a narrative to suggest future action, to voice that part of the story.  At the beginning of the tale, she kills her first husband and doesn't get caught, but as she kills her second husband, you can tell she will be caught this time.  Whereas, the technique use for the third tall tale is a pun.  Cowboys go to heaven and stay there.  This is a group of words are the same words, but by putting a sharp diverse meaning on it, it makes the words amusing.

Although there are some minuscule similarities, these stories are extremely diverse.  This diversity is due to the culture from where the stories are from, because all cultures are different.