Essay: Our Fears

(The Two Corpses)

Table of Contents

The Two Corpses had one fear that is completely universal to all humans, death. Two corpses chase a soldier through a cemetery. The soldier has to choose between the two most common reactions humans would have in this situation, fight or flight. What I mean is, people either will either fight back or cave in under pressure. The soldier runs into a church and waits. The two corpses get into a fight and then the soldier sneaks out untouched. The soldier was smart and fought back waiting for the opportune moment to escape. The source of the fear in this story, and really any scary story, is how unsettling the circumstances are. Then naturally, a person reading this puts themselves in the character's shoes. So, when someone sees or reads a story like this with outrageous circumstances, most of their immediate thoughts are "Oh my gosh that would suck," which leads to "What if that were me!" The source of fear is in the unsettling circumstances that make it feel real. 

In The Witch Girl, death also is the fear displayed. Death itself isn't what makes it scary though. The fact that the death comes by a Witch, evil mythical forces, is what makes it scary. In the story, a witch comes by every house in a town at night time and kills whoever she wishes. The people never know when she will strike though. The setting, nighttime, makes it really scary. No one has any idea when she strikes. So, this one has a happy ending though with a guy that cuts her arm off leaving her useless. The guy who did this, like above, fought back in challenging circumstances. People want to overcome evil and these writers did a good job playing to that. I do not know why people like to read or watch stories like this. I guess the only logical conclusion is that people liked to be scared. 

Storytelling Week 14: Corpse Brothers

(Soldier)

One day a soldier is walking to his pickup location after the war is over. He finally can go home! It is a cold night and he is walking by himself when he suddenly hears something. It sounds like a voice. 

"Ohhhhhh naaaaaoooooo!!!!!," the voice yells. 

The soldier looks around, but sees nothing. Suddenly, he hears footsteps behind him. Before the soldier can turn around he is knocked to the ground. He sees it is a corpse that has come to life that knocked him down.  The corpse stick out its long tongue as it gets closer to the soldier. It keeps getting closer and the soldier has to make a move. He kicks the corpse in its leg causing it to fall. Boom! The soldier gets knocked down again by another corpse. 

This new corpse says, "Brother are you okay?" 

His brother responds, "Yes, just trying to catch us some supper."

They both look at the soldier and smile. 

The soldier looks at them and says, "Bring it."

The corpses run at the soldier, but he clotheslines both of them. They get up ready for more. They both jump at the soldier and tackle him to the ground. The soldier punches one in the face and kicks the other in the stomach. He makes it to his feet and both corpses let out a shriek that would rattle the gates of hell. 

The soldier gets a bewildered look on his face. Suddenly, all of the graves start shaking. One by one, corpses rise from each grave. The two corpses look at the soldier with a smile. The soldier now has a limp due to the beating he took. He turns around and makes a dead sprint for his camp he just came from. He's got a mile jog to out run the corpses. 

The soldier is running and looks behind him to pure terror with hundreds of corpses chasing him. 

The soldier yells to his camp, "Help!!!!! Help!!!!!" 

Nothing happens from his yelling. He is about one hundred yards aways. The soldier falls down. The corpses are feet from him. The soldier reverts to the fetal position. 

Instantly, corpses are getting shot down. 

The soldiers lieutenant yells, "Come on run! We have cover fire! Men fire at will!"

The soldier gets up and runs crying and screaming. Corpses inches from grabbing him, but getting shot down. 

The soldier yells, "Nooooo!!!!" 

He keeps dodging bullets and explosions. 

The corpses keep falling like domino's. The soldier makes it to camp  and jumps over the wire fence with a corpse still behind him. The corpse jumps after him, but the lieutenant shoots it in mid-air with a shot gun blowing it back to hell. The soldier made it and will wait to leave with his whole company to head home.   

Author's Note: I chose the third person narration style because its just easier for me truthfully. It feels more natural for me to write that way. My main goal for this story was to keep the happy ending with the soldier ending up alive, but make it much more difficult and dramatic for him to escape. 

In the original story,The Two Corpses, a soldier walks through a cemetery and gets chased into a church by a corpse. The corpse that chased him runs into another corpse in the church and they end up in a fight killing each other. Thus, the soldier escapes free easy. So, as stated above, I changed everything after the soldier's first confrontation with a corpse.  

Bibliography:The Two Corpses, Russian Fairy Tales, W. R. S. Ralston, (1887)

Reading Diary B: Russian Folk Tales

(The Witch Girl)

Table of Contents

The Witch Girl was such a great story! Wow, I never thought I would see what they were writing about. The most interesting thing I found about this story is the people's resiliency. A witch would come into a house and all would fear knowing a witch is coming at some point. The witch comes silently and kills. So, I wondered why the people just let this continue to happen. Their resiliency was very low. This made the hero, the Cossack, even better though! The witch comes in and he listens to his natural instincts, which is to protect everyone in the house he is staying in for the night. The witch came in and the Cossack cut her arm off. Everyone was alive and they went to search for the witch and found a little girl missing an arm. Finally, one person stood against her and ended this dreadful streak! I couldn't believe it took so long for someone to do that.

The Two Corpses was a very interesting story. Its about a soldier that escapes two corpses that come alive and chase him. The corpses end up getting into a fight and fall lifeless leaving the soldier to leave safely. The most interesting thing I found about this story was the shock value. The story was flowing like normal and all of a sudden you hear that a corpse is chasing the soldier. That freaked me out pretty good. Could you imagine anything worse? You are headed home in the dark and get chased by a corpse? It would be terrifying. I thought the writer did a very good job in making this a frightful piece. 

Reading Diary A: Russian Folktales

(The Dead Mother)

Table of Contents

The Dead Mother was a very depressing story. A mother dies giving birth to a child, but then comes back as a ghost feeding the baby every night. The baby cries all day long and is soothed by the dead mother at night. The husband sees this and then finds that the baby is dead. What I find most interesting about this is that someone chose to write about this topic. Who would want to write about this? I think its someone trying to express their pain they have experienced. That's what I find most intriguing. I hope, whether the story is true or not, that individual who wrote this has found peace in some way. 

Friday had a happier ending thank goodness. A mother did not honor Mother Friday resulting in a consequence. Mother Friday came into the mother's house and filled her eyes with dust to where she couldn't see. The mother then passed out and woke up in shock. She cried out to Mother Friday for a pardon and Mother Friday cleared her eyes. I chuckled a little bit reading this because it seems like someone got in trouble with their mother! That's what's most interesting to me! How even a story about filling someone's eyes with dust can be frightening if your mother is involved in the punishment. If mom isn't happy, no one is happy. 

Both stories were polar opposites, but I think held great value. It is amazing what people will write about. I especially wonder what inspired many of the writings.