Genres of Literature Part II: FOLK TALES

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Genres of LiteraturePart IIFOLK TALES
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What are we doing today?

• Whats a folk tale?
• What are the characteristics of folk heroes?
• The legend of John Henry.
• Where are they now?
• Creating our own folk heroes.

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Whats a folk tale?

• Folk tales are a lot like mythology, but they
  tend to have a more down-to-earth focus.
• Folk tales revolve around real or supposedly real
  people, not gods or spirits
• Folk tales have a strong regional character.
• We will focus on American folk tales in this unit.

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What are the characteristics of folk heroes?

• Folk heroes are larger than life in both their
  personalities and their abilities.
• Folk heroes tend to have traits considered
  valuable by the people who tell their tales.

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The Legend of John Henry
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The Legend of John Henry, part I

• John Henry was born a slave in 1840, and was
  freed by the Emancipation Proclamation.
• John Henrys father was a steel driver.
• From an early age, John Henry knew that he was
  going to be a steel driver, too.
• At one point, young John Henry declared that he
  would die driving steel.

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The Legend of John Henry, Part II

• When John Henry became a man, he went to work as
  a steel driver for the Chesapeake Ohio
  railroad.
• John Henry was an amazingly strong man. He was a
  hard worker, and proud of his skills.
• Of all the steel drivers, John Henry was the
  best.

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The Legend of John Henry, Part III

• The legend centers around the COs efforts to
  drill a tunnel through Big Bend Mountain.
• A man approached the CO company with a new steam
  drill, which he claimed would make steel drivers
  a thing of the past.
• John Henry rose to the challenge, and declared
  that he could drill through the mountain faster
  than any machine.

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The Legend of John Henry, Part IV

• The contest was on. John Henry started on one
  tunnel, while the steam drill started on a
  second.
• John Henry pushed himself to his limits and
  beyond. He worked harder and faster than any man
  had before.
• John Henry won the contest driving 14 feet of
  tunnel in the time it took the machine to drive 9
  but the effort cost him his life. He died of
  exhaustion, or perhaps a stroke.

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Where are folk heroes now?

• Are there stories today that revolve around
  larger-than-life figures?
• Are there stories that focus on people with
  over-the-top traits, bigger better than normal
  people?
• Are there stories that have characters who embody
  traits that we think are valuable or useful?

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Your own folk hero.

• Friday, you will create your own folk tale.
• Your folk hero should be somebody who exists
  today, and has traits that will be useful
  valuable in todays world.
• Keep this in mind while reading listening to
  American folk tales this week.
• Bonus points for some kind of illustration.