Item 3
Source:
This was collected by me (Elise Suarez) in an informal Zoom interview with my friends and fellow IU students: Emilyann (Emily) Long, Cassie Ruch, Allyson McBride, and Harrison Sutton. The interview took place on Sunday, March 21, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. This is a variant of the previous legend seen in Item 2, and is told by Harrison Sutton, a senior.
Text:
Variant of Owen Hall’s Cadaver Arm
Harrison: I pretty much heard the exact same story. It didn’t have as much background with the dumbwaiters and such. It was mainly like, somehow in Owen Hall they found an arm, or they just had an arm from one of the cadavers. And they were like, gonna attach it to a lamp and like, set it in the room and like, scare ‘em.
Elise: Like in her dorm room? Or in Owen Hall?
Harrison: Yeah, in her dorm room. They like, left it there to be like, ‘ohhh,’ yknow, ‘let’s scare ‘em.’ They’re all waiting, they like, watch her go in the room. They’re all waiting outside, like, waitin’ for her to scream or whatever, and they don’t hear anything for a while. They’re like, ‘well, this is lame. Like, no one is scared.’ So, they opened the door to be like, ‘okay, joke’s up,’ and yeah…she’s…eating the arm. She’s just chewin’, snackin’ on it.
Allyson: Now that I’m hearing that, that’s what I remember. I just remember it was in a room, I thought it happened in Owen Hall.
Harrison: It may not have been her dorm; she may have been like studying there at night because the story is like she was studying so hard she went crazy. She could’ve been staying [in Owen Hall] overnight and then that’s when they tried to scare her. And she just went into some sort of…midterm frenzy.
Allyson: That’s interesting, I don’t remember there being a motive. I just heard she ate the arm for no reason.
Texture and Context:
This legend was collected in an informal context, in a group interview. Because this was an informal group interview done with a group of friends, the informant, Harrison, was able to apply his variant of the cadaver arm legend to one that was previously told. This also allowed for the two informants, Allyson and Harrison, to, in a way, bounce ideas off of one another and further recollect details of the legend, or even learn details they had not previously known. The informality and group dynamic also allowed for some laughs and jokes, as seen in some of Harrison’s more informal language in his telling of the story (ie. “snackin’ on it”).
In the immediate context, the legend was told right after the legend collected in Item 2. Harrison had come into the meeting prepared to share this legend, but the presence of Allyson’s legend allowed him to tell less of it, as shown when he states, “I heard pretty much the exact same story.” Thus, Harrison’s telling of the legend focused more on providing details that Allyson had not heard or that she had forgotten. This type of collaboration may not have happened in a more formal interview.
Interpretation:
This legend, particularly in conjunction with the legend in Item 2, alongside archival research shown in a previous report I have done, displays the concept of tradition. The fact that the two informants had not heard this legend from each other or from an online resource indicates that it is still a legend being actively told on the IU campus by multiple groups of people. As seen from my previous archival research, this legend was being told at IU almost 70 years ago. The longevity of the cadaver arm legend demonstrates that there is a tradition of IU students telling it to each other. A likely reason for this tradition is the scary nature of the story, as it is intended to scare IU students about potential pranks and the stress of exams. Further, its inclusion in things such as FESA’s ghost walk is also a display of tradition. There are likely many stories that FESA could have chosen to include in their ghost walk, but this one was chosen over others, indicating that it is still an important part of IU’s folk history.