Tall Tale

Tall tales are outlandish folk tales, usually about primary figures of the American frontier. They are meant to be entertaining and funny, and they favor imagination over logic. One hallmark of the tall tale is that it is presented straightforwardly, as an absolute truth.

As a part of American history, many tall tales relate the creation of features of the landscape, such as Paul Bunyan digging Lake Michigan because Babe, his blue ox, needed a drink. Others exaggerate the adventures of real people and heroes. The people of the colonies and the young United States made telling tales an art, and it is regarded as a uniquely American genre.

Origins of the Tall Tale

Humorous and exaggerated stories have been around for a long time. Benjamin Franklin, an American founding father and gifted satirist, was one of the first humorists of the New World. Although humor was well known in England, Franklin gave it his own twist. He presented it seriously and sincerely. He defended the American sheep industry, for example, stating that the wool on the animals was so bountiful that each animal had a wheeled cart under its tail to keep the fiber off the ground. By the early nineteenth century, such claims were well recognized among Europeans as an American brand of humor.

Some believe that the key to understanding the development of tall tales is hardship—and the people settling America had more than most. The continent was not even supposed to exist. It confounded explorer Christopher Columbus at every turn as he tried to find a route to India. As people began exploring, they were amazed at just how vast this unexpected land mass was. They gradually realized they could not just plot a course up a river and find a way through it. The continent, in short, was a tall tale in the making.

Scholars believe that the difficulties of exploring and settling the North American wilderness contributed to the development of tall tales. People hungered for descriptions of it, and very few Eurocentric explorers had firsthand knowledge of the place. Stories that reached England were meant to entice people to travel to the New World and settle there, and were often wildly exaggerated. Those who explored the interior brought back stories of places never before seen by non-natives, and many people exaggerated and embellished their experiences for the entertainment of their listeners. Nobody was in a position to argue with them.

Celebrated author Samuel L. Clemens, writing as Mark Twain, developed his skill in exaggeration by listening to the yarns spun by others. He said he learned how to tell a story by listening to many of the best doing so. He claimed that every time he wrote the truth, he was accused of lying, but when he wrote a lie, people believed it.

Folk Heroes

Various European cultures had folk heroes that helped define a national identity. Some scholars believe that immigrants and other pioneers who settled the frontier were trying to forge an American identity by creating folk heroes such as Paul Bunyan, Davy Crockett, John Henry, Annie Oakley, and Johnny Appleseed. Many early tall tales developed through the custom of oral storytelling and likely grew more outlandish through frequent retelling.

Frontiersman Davy Crockett developed his own legendary status. He told tall tales about himself, and when he ran for Congress, he had others write stories about him. Both Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman) and John Henry are based on real people. Lumberjack Paul Bunyan is a completely fictional character and was a promotion created by the Red River Lumber Company. The success of Bunyan led to the creation of other fictional heroes, including frontiersman Febold Feboldson, steelworker Joe Magarac, and cowboy Pecos Bill. Such tales created an identity for people based on ethnic background, locality, or occupation.

Tales of Davy Crockett's exploits often describe his skills as a frontiersman and his cleverness. One story tells how Crockett was campaigning for Congress, when men in the crowd began demanding he buy them drinks. Crockett took them to the local tavern, but he did not have any money. He stepped into the woods and shot a raccoon, then paid the bartender with the animal's skin. When more men arrived and wanted drinks, Crockett noticed the coon skin was under the bar, which was made of logs. He slipped the skin out and handed it to the bartender to buy another round. This happened repeatedly. By the end of the day, Crockett had used one coon skin to buy ten rounds of drinks. Even the bartender admired him for it, saying it showed Crockett had what it took to work in Washington, DC.

The story of John Henry grew out of the construction of the nation's railroad system during the nineteenth century. Railroad workers had to be strong. John Henry was a former slave, and the stories say he was strong even as a baby. He became a steel-driver, a worker who hammered thick spikes called drills to cut through rock. People said John Henry worked all day without rest and was so fast that his hammer looked like lightning. One day, a salesman brought a steam drill to the railroad company. He said the machine could do the work of twelve men. The supervisor bet that John Henry was faster. John Henry knew the machine would replace him and his friends, so he raced the steam drill. The steam drill was going faster at first, so John Henry worked with a hammer in each hand. After a long time, the machine broke down, but John Henry kept working. He finished drilling through the rock, but he had worked too hard. John Henry's heart stopped, and he died with a hammer in his hand.

Bibliography

Blair, Walter. Tall Tale America: A Legendary History of Our Humorous Heroes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Print.

"Children's Story: 'John Henry.'" Learning English. Voice of America News. Web. 5 Feb. 2016. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/childrens-story-john-henry-102197079/115888.html

"Tall Tales." American Folklore. S.E. Schlosser. Web. 5 Feb. 2016. http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/tall-tales/

Twain, Mark. How to Tell a Story and Other Essays. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1898. Print.

Wonham, Henry B. Mark Twain and the Art of the Tall Tale. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Print.