Goatman Version 1--Montgomery County, Maryland
It seemed from my story-collection that nearly everyone knows of some urban legend, but I found one story to be especially interesting because it is a relatively famous legend that has roots here in Maryland. The story of “The Goatman” has a number of variations, as with most urban legends. My roommate told me that he first heard the story from his parents when he was about 12 years old. He suspected that it was probably a joking attempt to scare him from playing outside so late at night because the sound of the basketball dribbling in the driveway would keep his parents awake. According to his parents, the Goatman was located in the suburbs of Montgomery County (his home), which was probably
…show more content…
He began the story by describing the Goatman’s appearance:
It’s a half-man, half-goat creature, with the upper body of a man, horns, a hairy face, and two legs like a goat, kind of like a Devil. It was created in a secret government genetics-type experiment that went wrong. [pause] It got out of its cage, which was really bad because it’s as smart as a human but has no conscience, like an animal. The Goatman has been creeping around at night for years. It kills family pets that are left out at night and attacks people who see him, and it has been able to stay hidden so well because it is so smart.
He did not mention where the creature was created or how it came to PG County. There were few pauses in his story-telling delivery, which was quite monotonous, as
…show more content…
According to this view, Darwinism accounts for the evolution of the various species on Earth, and mankind’s interference with this natural progression of God’s creatures is both unethical and dangerous. The harmonic, separate yet intertwined existence of man, beast, and nature is threatened when people decide to test their power by synthetically creating new forms of life. The Goatman possesses the intellect of a man, but with an animalistic nature. The story illustrates that this is a dangerous combination. Therefore, this moral interpretation of the story may have religious implications. It is wrong and punishable to challenge God by attempting to produce a creature that is not a part of God’s plan. The intellect of mankind is both a gift and a responsibility, and it was not meant to be used to manipulate life and its natural process of change as it has existed since the beginning of
An important religious symbol that is clearly seen in the passage above is that of a goat. We see Father Latour contemplating the symbolic complexity of goats. He pounders on the thought of goats as common pagan symbols of lewdness, which derives from
In the first chapter of the novel, the author gives the narrator’s story an informal, conversational tone by using “I” frequently, short, simple sentences, basic vocabulary and conversational phrases like “you know what I mean.” (pg. 8) The narrator seems like a nice old man: happy, brave, and compassionate. The narrator is an older, grown man working in an “office” and walking in a small town neighborhood. (pg. 8). He seems generally happy and is “walking along whistling” (pg. 8) as he walks. He does not get flustered easily because he doesn’t run away when a pack of dogs is coming at time but just “moves over the the edge of the sidewalk” (pg. 9) to let them pass. He was not too sentimental at first as he was worried about the “sanitation department [having to] pick up a dead dog” (pg. 9) instead of worrying about the poor animal and his suffering. However, when the dog reminds him of a time “when an old hound like that had given his life so that [he] might live” (pg. 10), the narrator gets emotional. His “fighting blood was boiling” (pg. 11) and he decides to intervene. It is clear that he is brave because he steps into the middle of a dog fight to save the old hound dog (pg. 11). Next, the narrator is kind and compassionate toward the dog when he “almost cried” (pg. 12) at the state of the old dog, and then baths and feeds him (pg.
when describing his father. At the beginning of the story he spoke as a child
The teller showed no unusual emotion while retelling this story to me. He was positive that it was not true. He told the story in a mocking tone; he sometimes finished his sentences with laughter or a smile.
In ‘unreliable narration’ the narrator’s account is at odds with the implied reader's surmises about the story’s real intentions. The story und...
The next character is the man who Brown meets up with in the woods. This man is described as, "one who knew the world, and who would not have felt abashed at the governor's dinner table or in King William's court" (Kelly, 191). This man can be seen as the devil. He possesses features that illustrate him as the devil. For example his walking staff is described as having "the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent" (Kelly, 191-192).
The unnamed narrator states that he is not expecting anyone to believe the extraordinarily strange story that he is about to recount; however, he proceeds to lay out the events as he saw them. Further into the story the reader finds out exactly why the narrator is not to be trusted – he is an alcoholic. The narrator begins fighting his inner demons a...
Not every story we hear is real nor what it seems. A person could calmly and accurately relate a story without an ounce of reality to it or exaggerate facts to make it more fantastic. Before agreeing to a story’s credibility, it is vital that you observe the tone, gestures, and the conviction with which the storyteller is relating the story. It is the reader’s responsibility to distinguish between facts and fiction and realize that, although a story was told in perfect detail does not mean the event was real. A reliable storyteller should be able to give details with clarity and transparency. Being consistent and rational are but few of the characteristics that would give away a reliable story.
He was born in Palestine, Texas to the parentage of Clyde Burette Woodard and Marye Regina (McClung) Woodard at 9:45 AM at the Palestine Sanatarium. His parents lived in Elkhart, Texas where his father was the owner and operator of Woodard Cleaners and his mother, Bubbie, as he called her, was the owner and operator of a beauty shop.
"The Goat that Makes Us Human" was an interesting article. Indeed, Snipes recalls her experience in the Andes, in which she seemed to enjoy her fieldwork. Snipes met two interesting people in her journey whose names were Gualberto and Florentina. Gualberto and Florentina presented Snipes with a goat whose previous name was Halcona, in which Halcona was renamed to Maise. The act of Gualberto and Florentina giving a goat to someone new in society shows that they were accepting of someone new, and it was the impression that others should be also. Interestingly, the Western culture does not offer goats to someone new in society, rather they introduce them to the finest restaurants in town, the community, and they even introduce them to tradition. On the other hand, in some
...role in this novel than any other character. The creature ultimately seems more human than any other character in the novel. All that he wants is love and compassion. Throughout the story the creature is really the only one that shows any true acts of kindness; he saves the little girl from drowning in the river, he collects firewood for the cottagers when he realizes he is hurting them by stealing their food, and he is the last person to judge anyone based on their physical appearances. Almost unquestionably the creature is the true protagonist of the novel and is who one should want to model themselves after.
A 19-year old female from Harford County, Maryland, narrated the story of Black Aggie, the urban legend of an overnight stay in a cemetery. She grew up Christian, and still lives in one of the more rural areas of Maryland with her younger sister and parents, who own and work at an electrical contracting business. Accustomed to hearing many ghost stories and urban legends, she first heard the story of Black Aggie during a middle school slumber party. Late one Saturday night over pizza in our Hagerstown dorm, she was more than willing to share her favorite urban legend with me.
These parallels between the creature and a developing child help to explain many of the mysteries of the book. As we see, the creature goes on a terrible killing spree. There are two reasons for this. First, the creature desires revenge for its isolation. But it seems that the creature is also not aware of its own strength - it is easy for the creature to accidentally commit a murder. What two-year-old would not dream of this power? The creature's identification with mythological figures has some fantastic aspects - children fantasize incessantly. This makes sense. The creature, being new to the living world, is chronologically a child - physically strange as it might be, we can only expect it to act its age.
Now, one might argue that because the narrator thinks this story “is worth a book in itself. Sympathetically set forth it would tap many strange, beautiful qualities in obscure men”, then he is biased: ergo, he’s an unreliable narrator (1940). However, being biased in and of itself is not the sole criterion for a narrator be...
I will demonstrate in this paper how Mary Shelley's Frankenstein confirms, and at the same time contradicts Darwin's ideas presented in "The Origin of the Species" and "The Decent of Man."