Instead, "his gaze fell to the plantation where the slaves who could not fly waited" (28). He isn't " laughin" or "cryin" (28) as he flies away from his former prison. Interestingly, Toby never gets emotional throughout the story. You know how the captain's supposed to go down with the ship? Toby models this maxim through and through. It would've been easy for Toby to lead the pack (more like flock) and take all of the glory, but he prefers to humbly bring up the rear. Interestingly, however, he follows the people, flying "behind them takin care of them" (27). He doesn't fly away until everyone who can fly has already left.Īs you can see, Toby is a Moses-like figure, leading his people from slavery into freedom.He approaches every slave who collapses, one by one, giving them the power to float "in the air" and ride "hot breezes" (22).He helps a man who "fell from the heat" (21) by reciting the magic words.He rescues Sarah and her child after they've been beaten so badly that they "couldn't get up" (14).Let's go ahead and list the guy's accomplishments, shall we? You don't have to do much digging to understand him, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing.
Toby represents a strong leader, selfless and completely dedicated to the good of his people.
This is because they're the result of a bunch of people sharing a single story, each shaping it in their own way before passing it along to the next storyteller who, in turn, adds their own take on the tale.Īll of this is to say that you have to take old man Toby at face value.
This has to do with the way they're created: Instead of having only one author, like a novel, folk tales have tons of authors. Like most folk tales, "The People Could Fly" treats its characters as symbols rather than individuals. Urn:oclc:54372442 Republisher_date 20120726033140 Republisher_operator Scandate 20120724084423 Scanner have to be honest: "The People Could Fly" isn't all that focused on its characters. Urn:lcp:peoplecouldflypi00hami:epub:f670eca5-a3ec-47a6-bd4c-71e22545cdc9 Extramarc University of Michigan Foldoutcount 0 Identifier peoplecouldflypi00hami Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t6rz0ft6z Isbn 9780375824050Ĩ4025020 Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Openlibrary O元680991M Openlibrary_edition Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 16:05:57 Boxid IA106501 Boxid_2 CH106301 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City New York Donorīostonpubliclibrary Edition 1st ed.
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