STORY
CUE CARD
“Sop
Doll”
Bibliographic Information (best version for
telling):
Chase, Richard, “Sop
Doll,” In The Jack Tales, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943.
Ethnic Origin: Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina and
Virginia
Running Time: 11-12 minutes
Power Center(s):
·
Jack’s calmness, casualness, and
bravery,
·
Eeriness of the appearance of the twelve
cats,
·
Old man’s surprise and sadness at
finding his wife is the witch leader.
Characters:
·
Jack
·
Old Man who owns the mill
·
One-eyed man with the silver knife
·
Old Man’s wife/Cat leader (leader of the
witch gang)
·
Eleven other cats/Witch women in the
settlement
Scenes:
·
Jack looking for work
·
Jack meeting the one-eyed man at the
mill
·
Jack cutting off the cat’s paw
·
The next morning, Jack telling the mill
owner of the previous night’s activities
·
Burning the witches
Synopsis:
Jack comes to a
settlement in search of work and meets a man who owns a grinding mill, but has
no time to run it. Jack is warned that
the previous mill workers have been killed their first night on the job. Jack takes the job anyway. In the course of his first day’s work, Jack
does a kindness for an old one-eyed man, and receives a gift of a silver
knife. While Jack is cooking his supper
over the fire late that first night, a gang of witches shows up in the form of
cats. One of the cats tries to sop her
paw in Jack’s supper skillet in order to poison him, but Jack cuts off the cats
paw with the silver knife. The cat’s paw
turns into a woman’s hand. The next
morning the old man who owns the mill recognizes the ring on the hand as
belonging to his wife. She has remained
in the bed that morning and asked the old man to send for eleven women of the
settlement to help tend her. The old man
discovers that she no longer has a hand, and that the eleven women who have
been sent for are her witch followers.
When all eleven of the women show up, they are locked in the house and
burned to their deaths.
Rhymes/Special Phrases/"Flavor":
While there are no
rhymes or repeating patterns I plan to use in this story, I do hope to capture
the flavor of the Appalachian speech patterns.
There are turns of phrase such as “lookin’ for a job of work,” “yonder
down the road a piece,” and “feelin’ right peaked,” along with many others that
I plan to incorporate.
Audience (why is this story appropriate for the
audience? developmental characteristics?):
I have chosen this
story for a middle school audience for a number of reasons, most importantly
because it is fun. I believe that Jack
tales are great for instilling a sense of cultural history (especially in the
state of North Carolina) in a lively and entertaining way.
I feel it is
especially applicable to these early adolescents because of the personal characteristics
that Jack demonstrates. Jack (in this
story and many other Jack tales) is a confident and self-reliant
individual. These characteristics
exhibiting self-worth are ones for which early adolescents are striving.
Jack also shows
constructive curiosity. According to the
Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, this is an “essential requirement
for healthy adolescence.” Jack rarely
runs from anything, and in “Sop Doll” it is his curiosity, as much as anything,
about what is killing the mill workers on their first night that convinces him
to take the job.
Another of the
Carnegie Council’s “essential requirements for healthy adolescence” is finding
ways of being useful to others. In
looking to do the best for himself, Jack is continually finding ways to help
others in the process. He uses his wits and wisdom to see a problem through and
solve it. Cultivating problem-solving
habits is another of those “essential requirements.”
Bibliographic information on other
versions/variants (at least two)
Leach, Maria, “Sop, Doll!” In The Thing at
the Foot of the Bed and Other Scary Tales, New York: Philomel Books, 1959.
This version of “Sop
Doll” seems to be a very condensed one when compared to the Richard Chase
version I have chosen to tell. There is
no flavor of the Appalachian dialect, and components of the story are missing,
like the mysterious one-eyed man who seems to know Jack and who gives him the
silver knife. There is no retribution
for the witches in this version either.
The story ends when the old man discovers his wife is a witch. I find this version unsatisfying since all
the flavor of Appalachia seems to be “sopped” out of it.
Hoke, Helen, “Sop Doll” In Spooks, Spooks,
Spooks. New York: F. Watts, 1966.
Unfortunately, I was
not able to get my hands on this version.
The book is out of print and the only copy in the Wake County Public
Library System is reported as missing.
The UNC Library System does not have a copy.