Vampire Text Analysis

I know I used this picture in a previous blog post ... but it is so cute and I could not help myself!

Incorporating vampires into the classroom can be a difficult task, as there are also standards that need to be taken into account. With that in mind though, I think it would be possible to incorporate this topic into a high school English classroom, as there are many texts about vampires that are a bit complicated, as well as historical information about the historical figure whom Dracula was based on. The historical figure is Vlad Tepes, but he goes by many names. There is also the content of how the country Romania handles and thinks about their hero being compared to a vampire. The Romanian government does not necessarily condone the comparison of Dracula to Vlad Tepes, but the Romanian government puts up with it due to the amount of revenue that is brought in from the tourism. In order to break up the information to be teachable, students do not need to know about the terrain of Romania, Serbia, or Eastern Europe. Only a little background knowledge of Vlad Tepes would be needed, which would only take one, maybe two class periods. Mainly, the knowledge that would be taught in this class would be delving into what traits make a vampire, a vampire, and how it is relevant to people who think they are vampires. Additionally, the students would learn some background knowledge of Vlad Tepes, as well as why people thought vampires were real, which is mainly if a grave was shallow and the dirt was disturbed, the logical thinking was that the dirt was disturbed by animals, as opposed to one thinking that the body moved the dirt. For this topic, I will be analyzing Vampire: A Casebook by Alan Dundes, "Five Vampires Traits That Exist in the Natural World" by Louise Gentle, and a song called "Earth, Wind, Fire, and Air" by the Hex Girls from the movie "Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost". I chose to analyze these three because Alan Dundes' has a lot of information, ranging from linguistics involving where the word vampire comes from, to people who think are vampires and the symptoms or possible illnesses that put these people into a type of hospital; The article by Louise Gentle goes into certain vampire traits that are real and seen in certain animals. There are also videos included about the animals; As for the music video, the characters are dressed up as vampires and gives some visualization as to how vampires would have dressed, possibly.

The following are parts of the text between pages 144 and 149 of the text:

"Records of vampirelike figures exist in several ancient religions. commonly mentioned are the Vajra deities of Tibet represented as blood drinkers, the Atharva Veda and the Baital-Pachisi in ancient Indian Literature, and Mexico's Ciuateto, who was associated with women in Mexico having died during their first labor."

"The modern vampire media myth probably originated in Scandinavia and the British Isles, but it most firmly took hold in medieval central and eastern Europe."

"Both clinical and forensic psychologists and psychiatrists have described cases that involves acts that are strongly reminiscent of some aspect of the mythical vampire's behavior. Clinical definitions of vampirism reviewed in the literature place the emphasis on overt vampiristic behavior."

"The connection is particularly salient in the more gruesome cases involving cannibalistic and necrosadistic behavior that resemble the content of schizophrenic delusional material acted out."

Results from Storytoolz

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: Grade 15.5

Automated Readability Index: Grade 17.6

Coleman-Liau: Grade: 17.7

Flesch Reading Ease: 23.4/100

Gunning fog index: Grade 20.0

Laesbarhedsindex (LIX) Formula: 64.3 = higher than school year 11

SMOG Index: Grade 16.6

Average grade level: Grade 17.5 (mean of above)

The quantitative measures for Vampire: A Casebook all scored really high on the storytoolz readability tool we were given access to, and the high scores of needing to be a professional, if not a college student, I agree with wholeheartedly. However, these high scores are also reasons why I would only use portions of the text, as it does not read like a novel, and I would be able to skip around and only use sections I think would be necessary for the students to know. I also came upon an audible version of the book when I was looking for a picture, and I think an audio book may help the students with pronunciation of words they may not know. I should also mention that the sentences I took from the text all came from one section, but I have no doubt in my mind other sections would score just as high. With that said, while I agree with the measures, I do think high schoolers - at least juniors or seniors - would be able to understand. I would not give this text to freshman or sophomores; I think it would be a bit too difficult for them. As for the qualitative, to help reduce the quantitative difficulty, I would incorporate and encourage peer to peer discussion groups to help each other answer questions they have, and to come up with a list of questions as a group if there is any mutual confusion, and then I would use a day to go over those questions as a class. I really want to ensure that the students are able to use reading strategies to try and understand a text on their own, and that it is okay if they do not understand something or have questions, and that is where I would come in and help them and while this text does have a lot of information, even when broken up into sections and the whole text would not be used, the purpose for using this text would be to introduce a topic, motivate interest, and to teach some background knowledge. The text I selected to use for the readability score actually comes from the section Clinical Vampirism: Blending Myth and Reality. It shows that there are people who have mental illnesses, and portray how they think. The other sections I would use would be ... maybe where the word "vampire" originated or came from, as well as point out some sections where the traits of a vampire are explained. Additionally, this book incorporates how different cultures have defined what a vampire is. I feel like using different cultures and including sections of illnesses may help to get students engaged into the topic.

The text used for the readability on my next source is as follows (there are a couple links in the text so I added [link] after the phrases of links; do not click on the word 'link', but the word before it):

"Vampire bats [link] prey on warm-blooded animals such as livestock, locating blood hotspots with their inbuilt infra-red heat sensors, and even utilise a protein called “draculin” [link] to keep their prey’s blood flowing.

"But they also need to feed every two days in order to survive, and finding prey this frequently is a challenge. Fortunately, vampire bats live in communal roosts, so have evolved a mechanism of food sharing [link] whereby they regurgitate blood for starving individuals. This is often done in a tit-for-tat manner – so individuals that have benefited in this way will reciprocate later by donating to the bats that helped them."

The quantitative scores from storytoolz is as follows:
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: Grade 12.9
Automated Readability Index: Grade 15.1
Coleman-Liau: Grade 12.7
Flesch Reading Ease: 48.2/100
Gunning fog index: Grade 16.1
Laesbarhedsindex (LIX) Formula: 56.9 = school year 11
SMOG Index: Grade 13.6
Average grade level: Grade 14.1 (mean of above)

In order to give the students a more realistic look of vampire traits, I would also use "Five vampire traits that exist in the natural world" [link to a web-page], which explains that some vampire traits are real, just spread out among animals. Louise Gentle (the author), talks about vampire bats, immortal jellyfish, naked mole rats, sharks, and the black heron (a bird). There are a couple short length videos that show the trait being described about the animal. For example, there is a video that accompanies the back heron, showing its wings sprawled out over its body, that resembles a cape, but the narrator explains the use of this, which helps the bird catch fish to eat. There some other animals mentioned briefly, such as a squid or octopus, and some links to other pages. These quantitative measures are also high, but I do not agree with these measures, especially the Flesch Reading Ease scale; a 48.2 is still considered to be college level, but the way these summaries are written, seem like juniors or seniors could easily understand, especially with the video accompaniment as well as some words being defined. For example, Gentle mentions tardigrades, but then explains what they are in parenthesis right after they are mentioned. I think including this interactive link with real world traits of vampires would allow students to understand where vampire traits came from (other than stories or myths) and that not all the traits are myths. This would hopefully encourage engagement as well, as who does not like to learn about animals?

My last analysis is on "Earth, Wind, Fire, and Air" [link to music video] by the Hex Girls from the movie "Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost". I have never analyzed a song before in this context, so this may be different that my two previous analysis's. Honestly, this is one of my favorite songs from this movie and who does not like Scooby-Doo? It is fun and different, and allows students to analyze something other than a book, as students can analyze the costumes and visual aspects. The one in the red is dressed as a vampire; she has a bat necklace and is portrayed in black and red. From what I have seen about vampires, they are mainly dressed in black clothing and have fangs for their canines. What is even more in the picture of the Hex Girls above is that each character portrays a different monster, even though they all wear the vampire fangs. The girl to the left in the image is wearing green, and is dressed or taken after Frankenstein, while the girl on the right is dressed up or portrayed as a werewolf. The characters from the Scooby-Doo gang are dressed with either a pointed witch's hat or a cloak, which is also a trademark of vampires. The song itself sends a positive message about how we should love the Earth. This video would be used to show students a visualization done in a kids' movie, and show that the concept of vampires is still a high interest in our (American) culture. I have included the lyrics below to the song, as storytoolz would not let me conduct readability, as the website could not find any sentences.

Earth, wind, fire, and air
We may look bad
but we don't care
We ride the wind
We feel the fire,
To love the earth is our one desire
(to love the earth is our one desire)

Love the earth
It's only fair
It's one big earth
That we must share
We love the earth
With all our fire
It's in our souls
Our one desire

Earth, wind, fire, and air
We may look bad
But we don't care
We ride the wind
We feel the fire
To love the earth is our one desire
(to love the earth is our one desire)

Nature is a precious gift
It will make your spirits lift
Love the earth with all your fire
It's in your soul
Your one desire

Earth, wind, fire, and air
We may look bad
but we don't care
We ride the wind
We feel the fire
To love the earth is our one desire
To love the earth is our one desire

Works Cited

Dundes, Alan. Vampire: A Casebook. The University of Wisconsin Press, 1998. [print based] *

Eldridge, Alison. “Vampire.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/topic/vampire [multimedia]

Johnson, David. “The Terrifying Truth about Dracula.” Infoplease, Infoplease, https://www.infoplease.com/culture-entertainment/mythology-folklore/terrifying-truth-about-dracula [print based]

Louise Gentle Senior Lecturer in Behavioural Ecology. “Five Vampire Traits That Exist in the Natural World.” The Conversation, 13 Sept. 2022, https://theconversation.com/five-vampire-traits-that-exist-in-the-natural-world-104957 [multimedia] *

Thurow, Roger. (2001, Oct 30). The vampire strikes back: Romania wants bigger cut of dracula --- the solution is a theme park in old transylvania; would you like to buy a stake? Wall Street Journal Retrieved from < https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.uwm.edu/docview/398869172?pq-origsite=primo > [newspaper; culturally relevant]

rAtZ89. “Earth, Wind, Fire and Air.” YouTube, YouTube, 21 May 2008, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJDaaCtJ85c. (This song is from the movie Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost) [culturally relevant] *

“Vampires.” Unnatural World Wiki, https://unnaturalworld.fandom.com/wiki/Vampires [print-based].