Jersey Devil

One myth that has always been apart of growing up and if you from New Jersey you know it the story of the New Jersey Devil. There are many versions of the myth but heres the one I heard the most. the myth states that Mother Leeds was giving birth on a very dark and stormy night. It was said to be her 13th child, and while she was was in labor she was said to have cursed cursed the child saying "let this one be the devil." Giving birth to this child killed Mother Leeds and as the nurse helping with the birth was holding the baby it was said that it sprout bat like wings had body like a horse, hooves, claws, a tail, and a kangaroo like head. It then went and killed all the other children and the father then escaped out the chimney. This myth made me think of a few things. The first thing was that people always need an explanation for what seems different to them. The refusal to accept others based on looks is significant in US history as it is in recent school shootings. Even more recently, a bunch of girls brutally beat another girl and then posted the video on YouTube. I’m sure the reason was that she was different from them. They made her into the devil myth and they were ridding the world of that devil. This beating and videotaping was done for popularity and power. This cleansing of evil is a reason behind every war (the Holocaust, Darfur, and Israel and Palestine) and many human actions (gay bashing, lynching, burning witches). Even in Othello, his epileptic fits, which were probably difficult for people to explain in the early 1600s, would make Othello different. He would have the devil in him, which then makes his brutal act of killing Desdemona as a link to the devil. He has to die in the end for his country to be free from that evil.