Haints In To Kill A Mockingbird
Southern Folklore: Haints and Boo Hags
Ghosts are commonly known all over the world. In some legends they feed off of a human host. In other stories they just torment whomever has the misfortune of meeting them. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the main characters comment on haints (another words for ghosts); so, using an exhibit by Cindy Ensminger, and a website by Mickey Euston ,the origin and actual legends will be revealed.
All stories, legends, and folklore come from groups of people who wholeheartedly believe in them. The southern folklore to be learned later come from a people called the Gullahs. Cindy Ensiminger says in her exhibit, “The Gullah people of Charleston are directly descended from these slaves who labored on rice …show more content…
According to Ensiminger, “The Gullah believed that by painting their porch ceilings, doors, window frames and shutters haint blue, the evil spirits would be fooled into perceiving it to be the sky.”(Museumofthecity.org). First, readers should know that ‘haint’ blue is another word for indigo. Also, there is a way to distract them long enough for them to destroy themselves. Euston says, “Boo hags are apparently curious and compulsive creatures. They can’t seem to pass a straw broom by without counting every last strand. By the time they finish counting, they typically don’t have enough time to get back to their skin before the sun comes up”(scaresandhauntsofcharleston.com). So, by distracting them you can make them loose sense of time and ultimately save a lot of people. Even though they have to count every last strand, some can count really fast. So it is best to keep more than just one broom. You can also pour out sugar and they will that.
By using Cindy Ensiminger’s exhibit and Mickey Euston’s website, the readers can better understand what Scout and Jem were talking about in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Haints are evil spirits, and (even though the book never mentioned them) boo hags were evil witch-like spirits. They derived from the Gullah people who came from west Africa as slaves. There is only one thing readers should never forget, “Don’t let de Boo Hag ride
Ghosts are commonly known all over the world. In some legends they feed off of a human host. In other stories they just torment whomever has the misfortune of meeting them. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the main characters comment on haints (another words for ghosts); so, using an exhibit by Cindy Ensminger, and a website by Mickey Euston ,the origin and actual legends will be revealed.
All stories, legends, and folklore come from groups of people who wholeheartedly believe in them. The southern folklore to be learned later come from a people called the Gullahs. Cindy Ensiminger says in her exhibit, “The Gullah people of Charleston are directly descended from these slaves who labored on rice …show more content…
According to Ensiminger, “The Gullah believed that by painting their porch ceilings, doors, window frames and shutters haint blue, the evil spirits would be fooled into perceiving it to be the sky.”(Museumofthecity.org). First, readers should know that ‘haint’ blue is another word for indigo. Also, there is a way to distract them long enough for them to destroy themselves. Euston says, “Boo hags are apparently curious and compulsive creatures. They can’t seem to pass a straw broom by without counting every last strand. By the time they finish counting, they typically don’t have enough time to get back to their skin before the sun comes up”(scaresandhauntsofcharleston.com). So, by distracting them you can make them loose sense of time and ultimately save a lot of people. Even though they have to count every last strand, some can count really fast. So it is best to keep more than just one broom. You can also pour out sugar and they will that.
By using Cindy Ensiminger’s exhibit and Mickey Euston’s website, the readers can better understand what Scout and Jem were talking about in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Haints are evil spirits, and (even though the book never mentioned them) boo hags were evil witch-like spirits. They derived from the Gullah people who came from west Africa as slaves. There is only one thing readers should never forget, “Don’t let de Boo Hag ride