Urban Legend Research Paper

Urban legend is commonly seen as one of the most important and versatile forms of verbal folklore as its applications can be synthesized by anyone anywhere. In my research paper I will be diving deeper into an urban legend local to my hometown of Mahopac,NY. This urban legend is the legend of “Oniontown”, a supposed haven for “In-breds” and “mutants” this town features people who will do anything to remove outsiders from their secretive community. The legend of Oniontown plays off of several aspects of the genre of verbal folklore Urban Legend such as the connection to cultural anxieties like incest and socioeconomic class. For my research, I will be analyzing an interview of my friend Matt, whose older brother has had first-hand experience
The Hook is a story that has seen lots of variation but features main motifs of a teenage boy and girl going out to a secluded location in their car while a killer with a hook hand is on the loose. Some versions of the story have the couple drive off to find a hook still in their car when they get home while others have the man getting murdered by the killer. This story is absolutely an urban legend and likewise shares the same components as the legend of Oniontown such as a focus on cultural anxieties. In William M. Clements article Mythology and modern legend: Interpreting “The Hook” he goes deeper into this idea of all urban legends sharing components but focuses on the urban legend of The Hook. Clements goes on to talk about the connection between psychoanalytics and urban legend, he says that psychoanalytics is “an emphasis on the unconscious segment of the human psyche.”(Clements 41) When paired with urban legend it is essentially cultural anxieties that people unconsciously don’t address but when it is brought up in a legend it becomes interesting to them. In the case of The Hook, Clements quotes Dundes who said that the story is “primarily among adolescent girls” and “argues that “The Hook” symbolically addresses their fears of male sexuality.” (Clements 41) Clements is stating that because of the common adolescent girls fear of male sexuality they unconsciously never talk
I asked questions such as if Matt has heard any variation in the story or if he believes that there are any cultural anxieties in play in the legend to keep a focus on the folkloric aspects of the story. In response to my first question “Can you tell me the story of Oniontown?” Matt responded with the answer I expected, stating that “If you go into the town you will be attacked by mutants or inbreds that inhabit the town and they will do anything to get you out.” From this I learned that Matt has already heard the stereotypical story of Oniontown which features “Inbreds” and “Mutants” instead of normal people. When I asked Matt if he had ever visited Oniontown himself his response was a firm “No” and he then went on to say that he would never visit Oniontown for fear of his own safety. This response shows the true fear instilled in the people who have heard the story which may be a result of the effort by the story teller to prove its veracity by using names or even news stories. I then went on to ask Matt if any of his older brothers have visited Oniontown themselves. Matt responded with “Um, my brothers haven’t visited Oniontown, but my brothers friends did visit Oniontown and appartently when he pulled up him and his other friend had rocks pelted at their car and their windows blown out and actually had one of the kids sent to