Ark of Bones (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Henry Dumas
- First Published: 1971
- Type of Plot: Fable
- Time of Work: Probably the mid-twentieth century
- Setting: The Rural American South, probably Arkansas
- Principal Characters: Fish-Hound, Headeye
- Genres: Fable, Short fiction
- Subjects: African Americans, Supernatural, Superstition, Youth, Fishing or fishermen
- Locales: South (U.S.)
The Story
Because the actual language of “Ark of Bones” is its primary virtue, the story is difficult to describe. It is a first-person account of Fish-hound, a young black male, who goes fishing one day and is followed by his friend Headeye, who claims to have supernatural powers because he possesses a mojo bone, a totemistic object of African superstition. The story attempts to create the rhythm and idiom of southern black dialect and to emulate the syntax and digressions of an uneducated black youth. Although the ages of Fish-hound and Headeye are not revealed, their...
[The entire page is 1488 words long]
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