Myths of Different Cultures

    While studying folklore, I found that there are likenesses and also differences between stories from different locations around the world. Each country or ethnic group added their own identity and their own flavor to the stories that were part of their culture. The three myths that I chose originated in Hawaii, Mexico and the US.
    My first story was called “Pele’s Revenge” and was set in Hawaii. A sweet young couple is madly in love, and a self-absorbed goddess named Pele’s jealousy causes her to separate the couple by turning the husband into a tree. The gods see his wife Lehua’s pain and turn her into a beautiful flower so that she can always be with her lover. The theme in this tale is that the love of the couple was so strong that they could not be separated, even in death.
    In “The Wailing Woman,” a story from Mexico, the main character is the wife of a man who leaves her because his parents do not approve of her. She is so outraged and hurt that she retaliates by drowning their two young children and brutally taking her own life. However, her act is so evil that she is not allowed into heaven, but stays on Earth, forever searching for her children. The theme I found was that if you commit a crime so awful, you will be condemned to never enter heaven.

During the story “Bloody Mary,” which took place in Pennsylvania, here in the USA, Bloody Mary is killed by the people of her town after being discovered stealing young girls and murdering them to make herself young. As she is dying, she leaves an evil curse. The theme of the myth: Anyone who crosses Bloody Mary will be killed, mutilated, and trapped forever in a mirror.

    Obviously, these stories had a lot of differences. The first myth had a sort of bittersweet, but happier ending than the other two, which had gruesome or depressing endings. Another difference is that two of the stories deal with magic or the gods, which are things that most people don’t believe in. However, the story from Mexico is more of a religious tale, and a Christian would believe that it could definitely happen. The main similarity that I found between all three myths was the fact that they all had some element of revenge or payback.