The People Could Fly

The People Could Fly

The Two Johns.  This tale to me was a very engaging and educational tale.  Near the end I thought - OK, Big JOhn has got to figure out by now that things don’t work the way he believes they will when dealing with Little JOhn - but he never did figure it out and it was the death of him.  

The idea of the wise John and the foolish John is played out in many stories and characters.  Even Wiley E Coyote comes to mind.  Anyhow, this tale really makes readers think about who truly has it better.  In this case, the person with more, Big John, truly had less.  And try as he may to have as much, if not more than Little John, he could never get there.  In the end it cost him dearly.  

The trickster tales though were by far my favorite.  Paybacks only work if you think things through.  It isn’t the fastest or the biggest that has the advantage but the calmest and most clever.  This tales seemed very fitting historically.  Slaves had no legal rights above their owners.  Slaves had no power over their owners.  Even if they were bigger and stronger they could not use that physical power against their owners.  The tool they needed the most was their wits.  Using their wits could keep them out of trouble, calm a situation, and possibly - as in the stories told here - offer them their much sought after freedom. 
THough slavery is not an issue today in the states, using wits is still something every person can learn about.  There is the quote, “Once you start swinging fists you are admitting you have run out of ideas”  Thinking, having patience, a plan, and using those things to your advantage can take you much farther than anything else (especially when you are in an otherwise powerless situation).

I also really enjoyed The People Could Fly until the end.  I wanted them to take all the slaves. I wondered why, if they know how to fly they didn’t leave sooner.  Partially I thought that they were not oppressed enough, and only when things were so bad would they recall how to fly - then I thought that was ridiculous - as a slave when were things tolerable?  Honestly I struggled with the end.  Who could leave others behind?  Were they OK with that?  Did they go back?  There were just more questions than anything else after reading this tale that I was left unsettled.  

The other thing I did appreciate about this book was the illustrations.  They were simple but strong.  I especially was drawn to the boy in “The Talking Cooter”  There seemed to be a fitting quality to the drawings.  Had another artist gotten too colorful or fanciful I believe I would have been a bit turned off to the illustrations.  The drawings in the book seemed perfectly suited.  It is interesting because I like the drawings because they are “simple” but do not believe the people or tales are simple.  Perhaps it seems fitting to me because folk tales usually appear simple but if you look beyond their surface meaning, they are usually quite deep and meaningful - in that way I enjoyed the illustrations.

Overall though, the stories in this book were fitting to the genre of Folk Tales.  The language was appropriate, the historical element was present, the lessons were clearly there, and many had repetition or rhythm to make them verbally easy to recall/retell.