Interview With A Folk Tale

My first task for this course, studies in literature was to interview a grandparent or an elderly person and ask them to tell me of a folktale they would have been told. I was excited to complete this interview as I saw it as a great opportunity to learn a bit more about history especially considering growing up I was never exposed to much folktale. My search to find a suitable candidate to interview did not take long as a one of my neighbors, Albert said he has a story that will surely pique my interest and ensure I get a good grade as well.
Albert’s grandmother told him this folktale at the age of eight, which was about the Soucouyant. He described the Soucouyant as a "ball of fire" or a "flame of fire" and who was an old woman that lived alone. He said she was rarely seen during the day because she slept for most of the day in order to prepare herself for her night time tricks. As Albert continued to give details about the Soucouyant he said as evening dawned, she would shed her old, wrinkled skin and would later deposit the shedded skin into a mortar which she carefully hid where no one could supposedly …show more content…
As a child growing up, Albert remembered himself and other children using chalk to draw a line across the street and lining it with hibiscus flowers in order to catch a Soucouyant. He was told that if the woman should cross the line she is not a Soucouyant but if she walked around the line then she is one. Once when he and his friends did that a woman actually walked in the grass and of course was labelled a Soucouyant. I am thankful my ancestors lived through this and I didn’t have to experience it. I am grateful I was able to find someone like Albert to be able to get a story. Throughout his story I noticed that Albert was rather calm so I asked him weren’t you fearful of the Soucouyant? He simply smiled and said “fear no