American Tall Tales (Puffin Books)

Adrian Stoutenburg’s “Hammerman” (in American Tall Tales) attempts to “shorten the height” (so to speak) of the tall tale that is the John Henry legend. In Stoutenburg’s version, John Henry is very much a “real” human being, whose character traits are accentuated, rather than

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caricatured: Stoutenburg explains that John Henry wasn’t really born with a hammer in his hand, but that he reached for a hammer immediately after his birth. Throughout “Hammerman,” Stoutenburg humanizes the John Henry myth by emphasizing the heroic struggle at the heart of the story: man and his dignified strength versus the cold, unfeeling machine that would replace him. Even the last few lines of Stoutenburg’s John Henry tale (“They say, if John Henry were alive today, he could beat almost every other kind of machine, too. Maybe so. At least John Henry would die trying.”) illustrate that John Henry wasn’t “larger than life” – in fact, his heroism came from the fact that he did die trying to fight the oncoming technology that would change the world. Stoutenburg’s book is a little more sophisticated in its writing style than most retellings of American tall tales, but it is refreshing to hear a more “truthful” account of stories that traditionally bury the truth under mounds of hyperbole.

Citation:
Stoutenburg, Adrien, and Richard M. Powers. "Hammerman/John Henry." American Tall Tales. New York: Viking, 1966. 88-100. Print.

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