Oxherding Tale (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Charles Johnson
- First Published: 1982
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Bildungsroman
- Time of Work: 1843-1865
- Setting: South Carolina
- Genres: Long fiction, Bildungsroman
- Subjects: African Americans, Racism, Blacks, Biracial people, South or Southerners, Nineteenth century, Slavery or slaves, Interracial relationships, Intermarriage
- Locales: South Carolina
Characters Discussed
Andrew Hawkins, the main character and the novel’s narrator. Andrew is a young slave of mixed blood whose driving ambition is to acquire his freedom and earn enough money to buy the freedom of his father, his stepmother, and his beloved Minty. Rigorously educated by his own tutor, Andrew is exceptionally intelligent and sophisticated. The moral decisions that he must make during his quest for freedom are complicated by the fact that he is light-skinned enough to pass as white. At the age of twenty, he leaves the cotton plantation where he was reared in...
[The entire page is 1376 words long]
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