Compare/Contrast Essay

There are many similarities and differences between the folklore of different cultures. I read three different stories with each one being from a different culture. My stories were from American, Mexican, and Native American cultures. The American story appeared to be created mostly in order to entertain the reader, while the other two seemed to teach a life lesson to the reader.
    The first story was derived from American culture and was called You Can’t Get Out. It took place in a town or city somewhere in America. To be more specific, it mostly took place in an open grave in a cemetery. The protagonist was the town drunk who was stumbling home after the bar closed and somehow found himself wandering through the graveyard. All of a sudden, the ground “opens up” in front of him and he falls into an empty grave. There, he hears something calling his name and sees a mysterious figure through the darkness. The scary figure then says “you can’t get out” and move closers and the drunk gets terrified and jumps six feet straight up into the air, grabs the side of the hole, and scrambles out. He then runs home as fast as he can in his drunken state of mind, leaving the antagonist, the strange figure, in the hole. Little did he know, the scary mystery man was actually just his neighbor, Charlie, who had fallen into the hole earlier. The theme of the story seems to be that you shouldn’t let fear overwhelm and conquer you.
    The second story was of Mexican culture and was called The Legend of the Poinsettia. It took place on a dusty dirt road in Mexico. The protagonist, Pepita, and her cousin Pedro are on the way to a festival where they are supposed to present a gift at an alter. Pepita is distraught and worrying about what she will do because she is poor and doesn’t have anything to present. Pedro tells her that even the most humble gift, if given in love, is acceptable. Feeling a little better, Pepita decides to fashion a bouquet out of some weeds from the side of the road, since that is all that she can afford to do. They go to the festival and Pepita lays her gift on the alter. As soon as she lays it there, the ugly weeds, transform into a bunch of beautiful red blooms. This is supposedly how the Poinsettia got its name. The theme of this story is that it isn’t how big of a gift you give, but your intentions behind giving the gift that matters.
    The third and final story was Native American folklore and was named Coyote and Wishpoosh. This story takes place at a lake in an unspecified place. The antagonist, Wishpoosh, is a giant monster beaver that tries to scare all of the animal people away from the lake where it lives. The protagonist, Coyote, is one of the animal people. He gets fed up with how his people are being treated and decides to kill Wishpoosh. He goes down to the lake and does not leave and when Wishpoosh came to confront him, he threw his spear at the monster, hitting him in the side. Wishpoosh then dragged him into the lake, where they fought and thrashed around. Coyote was losing the battle so he transformed himself into a tree limb and got eaten by the beaver. Then, while in the belly of the beast, he transformed back into a human and used a knife to kill the beaver from the inside out. I believe that the theme to this grotesque story is that there is nothing too big to overcome if you believe that you can do it and never give up.
    There are many different cultures that all have varying types of folklore. All of the different cultures seem to try to achieve different goals in their folklore. The American story seemed to be mainly about entertaining the reader, while the stories from Mexican and Native American culture seemed to be aimed more at teaching the reader an important life lesson. Even though all of the different folklore stories were made to accomplish different things, they all are equally important to their individual cultures.