Language and Written Expresion IV Teacher: Blas Bigatti Student: Valeria Niell
Urban Legends and Fables: Could “Humans Can Lick Too” do to teenagers what “The Wolf and the Seven Kids” does to children?
Are Urban Legends the older sisters of traditional fables? Urban legends imply morals in a hidden way with feasible, realistic and “mature” facts (no talking animals), whereas fables state morals explicitly, in a childish fashion (with talking animals in enchanted forests or cute hamlets). According to Susana Quiroga (1998-2004) and Marta Vega et al. (2007), in their development, adolescents undergo outbursts of rage and a sense of power that lead them to challenge adult authority. Trying to talk to them in this period is difficult, thus resorting to urban legends could help reaching them in order to warn them and/or to give them pieces of advice. Once upon a time, when we were children and we misbehaved or disregarded any instruction, our parents would alert us by telling us a fable, so that the moral would give us a lesson. For example, if children need to be left home alone, in order to prevent them from opening the door to strangers, “The Wolf and the Seven Kids” would come into play. “Remember, not to open the door to the big bad Wolf or else, he will eat you all”, said Mother Goat to her seven little Kidsi.Now, your kids are also warned. In fact, the purpose of traditional fables is to teach and to persuade children through morals. In the case of “The Wolf and the Seven Kids”, the moral would be “do not open the door to strangers”. Other instances of preaching morals are the one present in “The Shepherd’s Boy and the Wolf”: “There is no believing a liar, even when he speaks the truth” and the one in “Little Red Riding Hood”: “listen to your mother”. But how do we give pieces of advice to teenagers? As rebellious as they are, trying to teach them will produce the opposite reaction, because, when challenging authority, they do the contrary as they are told (from Quiroga, 1998-2004 and Vega et al. 2007).
Language and Written Expresion IV Teacher: Blas Bigatti Student: Valeria Niell
When challenging adult authority, adolescents would disregard any piece of advice for their safety, for they feel strong and responsible enough on their own (from Quiroga, 1998-2004 and Vega et al. 2007). This is precisely what happened to the thirteen-year-old female character from the story “Humans Can Lick Too”: her parents are going out for a late dinner and have to leave her alone in the house, not before giving her instructions about her wellbeing. But she resorts to watch TV with her pet dog and then she goes to sleep... Now, If a young adult has to be left home alone, the motherly Mother Goat won’t be of much help, but “Humans Can Lick Too” or any urban legend of the sort ii–because the oral tradition distort some details but keep the shocking end – may help to convey morals without sounding like a preacher. In the case of “Humans Can Lick Too”, since there is no explicit moral to be taught, the example set by the female teen character works as a perfect moral: she is left home alone and goes to bed without being cautious –she leaves a window opened. This careless action leads to the dreadful ending: a murderer, serial killer or paedophile – the occupation of the sinister character changes according to the different versions of the story – enters in the house and kills her pet, showing her that it could have been her the murder victim if her parents have not come home at the nick of time. Hence, the moral would be “check everything and be careful when you are home alone...or else the murderer (or the big bad Wolf for children) will kill you”. As terrible as it sounds, it works perfectly as heads up for adolescents because the difference between fables and urban legends is that the latter sound “real”. Urban legends contain details (characters and events) based in believable facts, making these stories credible and plausible to happen: a manic murderer slipping through an open window to slay the children is more realistic and convincing than a talking Wolf with its feet painted with flour (to look like Mother Goat) entering through the door to eat the children. Fortunately, “Humans Can Lick Too” is not the only urban legend that can help to convey morals. “The Baby Sitter” is another good case because baby-sitting is a common parttime job nowadays for adolescents. But how do we warn teenagers to be careful and to be responsible? They not only have to take care of the young ones, but the babysitters have to take care of themselves. The teen baby sitter from the story mentioned before does not take the necessary precautions: when she arrives in the house and the parents leave her alone, she goes to watch TV instead of checking if the children were OK and if the house was safe. She then is disturbed when she discovers that the kids she should have
Language and Written Expresion IV Teacher: Blas Bigatti Student: Valeria Niell
been responsibly taking care of were savagely butchered in the next room. The hidden moral could be “do not take things for granted and double-check everything before sitting to watch TV, because next time not only the children may be murdered, but you too!” What makes this story even more credible is the fact that it has been turned into a film named “The Call”. The graphic violence and the helpless look of the young actress gives “The Baby Sitter” a real touch. Urban legends sound too probable to be taken lightly and the gore and morbid details would be more appealing for adolescents. However, having “The Wolf and the Seven Kids” turned into a film would not give the fable a mature, real and credible touch and its audience would most probably be children and their parents. There are dozens of urban legends and each of them could be used to warn and to give morals to defiant teenagers. All that adults have to do is to find the appropriate, feasible and mature “fable’s grown-up older sister”.
References:
Quiroga, S. Adolescencia. (1998-2004) EUDEBA
Vega, M. et al. Escritos Psicoanalíticos sobre adolescencia (2007) EUDEBA
Blog
entries about believing on urban legends http://classof2007ufpa.blogspot.com.ar/2010/10/urban-legends_5559.html
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Typical monologue from Mother Goat in “The Wolf and the Seven Kids”
“Humans can lick too” has different versions but with the same ending: a “Humans can lick too” version with a paedophile being the murderer and “Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the light?”, where the victim is not a dog but a female college roommate and the murderer is a serial killer.