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Compare and Contrast Essay: Pishtaco
The Pishtaco from Latin American folklore is known to be a murderous fat stealer, and I have modernized him to make him even more deceitful. Stories can be told to send a message, and I’ve decided to do that for the new scene I wrote in Summer of the Mariposas, and I’ve decided the creature Pishtaco would be the best fit. Pishtaco looks like a man, usually wearing a broad hat. It can sometimes come on a horse or in a car and dressed as a priest (Zumel). It murders its victims, which can sometimes be unsuspecting travelers, with a machete and takes their eyes and fat. In my new scene of Summer of the Mariposas modernizing Pishtaco, I maintained many of Pishtaco’s main characteristics so it is still recognizable, but have also modernized it to deceive the sisters before it tries to kill them to illustrate the theme that things are not always as they appear.
In many ways, both the Pishtaco from my narrative and the Pishtaco from the original Latin American folklore are similar. The Pishtaco is introduced in a car for both, and appears as a priest with a broad-rimmed hat to the sisters. In my scene, the Garza girls are travelers, people Pishtaco likes to prey on. Lastly, the sisters fall asleep in Pishtaco’s car one by one, and Odilia describes it as being controlled, and Latin American folklore warns you not to fall asleep next to him and that he has the power to hypnotize you (Zumel). As you can see, all of these statements are found to be true in both my narrative and traditional folklore, keeping it recognizable.
I have also modernized Pishtaco by giving it a sly and deceiving personality. I wanted my narrative to adapt to the theme that things are not always as they seem. In the beginning, it deceives the girls by acting kind, which is not mentioned in the original folklore. It is also not said that Pishtaco speaks or interacts with you either, yet it does in my narrative. It talks in a friendly and warm tone, tricking the girls. One final detail I added was that he murders victims in a cave in the middle of a forest, which helps contrast to earlier where he seemed like a normal person with a nice car and has the clothes of a well-kept priest. All of this can only be found in my narrative and not the original folklore, since my narrative is made to adapt to the theme that things are not always as they seem. The real world is deceiving and there’s a lot of things that cover up what they truly are, so don’t be too trusting and gullible, which you hopefully saw with my scene for Summer of the Mariposas on Pishtaco.
In my narrative for a new scene in Summer of the Mariposas, I have kept many characteristics of Pishtaco the same but have also modernized it to illustrate the story’s theme. My new version of Pishtaco can help us see that things are not always as they seem, which can strongly relate to the real world. In life, you will encounter many things that cover up who they truly are when you first see them so they can benefit off you later. Make sure you have a good idea of what someone is like or there may be future consequences. Hopefully, this encourages people to be wary and alert of things you don’t know, and inspires them to not jump to conclusions.
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