The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales

Anton and Manuel are the protagonists of their respective stories. The reader takes their side and wants them to succeed and triumph over the applicable powers. In “The Beautiful Girl of the Moon Tower,” Anton is judicious and fair-minded. He evenly divides the dead ox among the eagle, ant, lion, and dove, and they repay him by giving him a magic spell that lets him turn into any one of the four creatures. Anton also allies with Mother-of-the-Wind, who slyly helps Anton figure out how to get to the tower of the moon.

Like Manuel’s journey to the king and princess, Anton’s courtship of the girl requires courage. While Anton uses magic and violence to eradicate the girl’s father, Manuel uses magic and wits to fool the king, queen, and princess and get the king’s fortune. Yet Manuel must confront something Anton doesn’t: an antagonistic mother. Worried that her son might literally lose his head if he doesn’t guess the riddle, she tries to kill him with poisoned cakes. Arguably, the mother just wants to give her son a humane death. Nevertheless, the toxic food gives Manuel’s character added drama. Anton, too, must face life-or-death conflict, but not from a family member.

As Manuel takes his fortune back to his mother, and “ever after they live[] happily” (75), the mother doesn’t stay an antagonist. The irony, or twist, is that the mother’s deadly cakes propel the riddle that helps Manuel fool the royal family. Anton, too, gets a happy ending. He “[becomes] king of the inhabitants of the moon” (59), and the girl becomes queen. Anton goes from a regular person to royalty as Manuel transforms from poor to wealthy.

Though the stories of Wiley and Little Eight John appear in different sections, their characters create a juxtaposition. Placed side by side, the reader can compare Wiley with Little Eight John and discern why Wiley is a worthwhile protagonist and why Little Eight John is an unadmirable antagonist.

Little Eight John pretends to follow his mother’s instructions. She tells him not to step on toad-frogs, and he assures her, “I won’t step on the toad-frogs. I won’t step on them!” (122). He’s lying. He steps on them, bringing misfortune to his family. His ongoing disobedience brings further calamities, but Little Eight John, lacking a conscience, can only “giggle and grin” over his destructive behavior (124).

Wiley listens to his mother. The Hairy Man offers to teach him how to conjure, and Wiley replies, “I can learn all the conjure I need from my mama” (95). While Little Eight John dismisses his mother, Wiley works with his mother to defeat the devilish creature. His mother tells him to trick the Hairy Man into turning himself into a possum, and he listens to her. His mother orders him to get the baby pig and hide in the haystack, and he does as he’s told. Wiley can be independent and courageous. Before his mother tricks him with the baby pig, he confronts the Hairy Man by himself and lives to tell about it. He can also ask for help when he needs it.

Thus, Wiley and Little Eight John are foils for each other, with Wiley possessing the positive traits that Little Eight John lacks. Little Eight John’s absence of good qualities makes the reader lose sympathy for him when Old Raw Head Bloody Bones turns him into a spot of grease, and his mother wipes it away, marking “the end of Little Eight John” (125).

The Devil’s daughter appears in “John and the Devil's Daughter,” and the title implies that she's a sidekick—the character who assists John de Conquer. While John’s name is first, minus the Devil’s daughter, he can't defeat the Devil; thus, she’s the most important character in the story and, arguably, the protagonist.

John is her sidekick and romantic interest. She “[sees] he [is] some handsome” (110) and helps him. She’s independent and goes after what she wants, and her self-empowerment gives her character a feminist quality. She has agency, and her father doesn’t restrict her identity. She’s the Devil's daughter, but she’s not devilish.

The main conflict is between her and her father, and John takes a backseat to the Devil’s daughter’s magical prowess. She completes John’s work assigned by the Devil; she gets the two fastest horses, transforms them into a fox and duck, and creates the huge thorny bushes that give her and John time to live a happy life and die before the Devil can reach them.

Jack is an antihero—that is, he lacks the traits of a likable protagonist. The narrator presents him as a villain—a “wicked man” who treats his “wife like a dog” and his “children like dirt” (126). Yet the story pairs Jack with the Devil, which, almost by default, precludes Jack from being a true antagonist or villain. The Devil, as the embodiment of evil, must be the antagonist.

Jack, unlike Little Eight John, isn’t completely unthinking: He has a conscience. After the Devil gives him a 12-month extension, Jack declares, “Now I will repent” (129). He’s aware he has led a lewd, harmful life, and his cognizance and attempt to make amends might spark sympathy from the reader. His inability to repent can also cause the reader to feel sorry for him. Jack is weak and pitiful—he “drunk so much, he was lyin in bed all the time, seein things that were not there” (129). Another way to read Jack’s character is as a person confronting a disease—Jack battles alcoholism: He doesn’t need the antagonist Devil but a community who can help him.

The image of Jack “wanderin in the dark” after a rejection from Heaven and Hell furthers his isolated existence (132). He’s a character with nobody on his side, and his abject alienation, even if it’s his fault, gives him feelings and, potentially, the reader feelings for him too.

The unnamed narrator in “Carrying the Running-Aways” is the protagonist and hero. The reader roots for him and wants to succeed in helping Black people escape slavery and reach freedom. The narrator is dynamic: He doesn’t start as a hero. He admits, “Never had any idea of carrying the runnin-away slaves over the river” (141). He has to “think about it” and is “scared” to join the resistance and the Underground Railroad (141-42). He’s not a fearless superhero but a person with nuanced feelings. He should be scared—if they catch him, they can punish him horribly.

The narrator faces his fears and winds up “rowin fugitives for almost four years” (144). His brave deeds cause conflict: Slave catchers discover his activities, but the narrator demonstrates his resourcefulness and resilience by eluding the slave catchers and hiding in caves and woods. The narrator gets a happy ending in the free state of Michigan and the chance to tell his stories to his child and grandchildren. Through the unnamed narrator, Hamilton notes that not everyone likes to hear stories and folktales from prior generations. The narrator admits, “[T]he bigger ones don’t care so much to hear about those times” (145).