American Literature: Summary of "Stagolee"

*
*




"Stagger Lee" (Mississippi John Hurt)
______________________________________________________


African-American Literature: Summary of "Stagolee"

As a five-year old child, Stagolee runs away from the plantation, where he had worked in the cotton fields, taking with him a guitar, a deck of cards, and a .44. As he grows up, so does his reputation. Stack, a bad-ass, has a tendency to get into bar brawls, which inevitably ends up with the other guy getting killed. The most famous brawl involves Billy Lyons (a real person killed by the real Lee Sheldon, also known as "Stagger" Lee), who becomes enraged after Stagolee wins all his money. Stagolee kills Billy and moves in with Billy’s wife. Everyone fears Stagolee, even the law, but one sheriff, a white man, is not about to let a “n____r” get away with murder, so he has a coffin prepared for Stagolee. When the sheriff tries to round up his deputies, they simply refuse to go after Stagolee. They place their guns on the shelf, and the sheriff tries to arrest Stagolee by himself, but Stagolee kills him. It turns out that Stagolee is immune to death (even after being lynched and hung by a new sheriff, who eventually learns the way things work with regard to Stagolee), and even Death fears him, and, thus, leaves him alone.

One day, 30 years later, St. Peter summons Death and orders the quivering guy with the scythe to get Stagolee. But Death is too scared, so The Lord arranges for St. Peter to get together a work crew to build a giant death thunderbolt. Even the Lord is a bit fearful of Stagolee and doesn’t even know how to spell his name (hence, all the variant spellings of Stagolee’s name: Stackolee, Stagger Lee, Stack-o-lee, Stagolee, Stag-o-lee, Stack, Stag). The giant thunderbolt finally kills Stagolee, who is then laid out in an expensive casket. Everyone mourns him, the funeral lasting three days and three nights, complete with song and dance. Because he was such a legend, an ordinary cemetery will not do, so they create one just for him and buried him there.

Stagolee breaks out of his grave and tries to find Heaven. After searching for a long time, he discovers St. Peter playing bridge with Abraham, God, Mrs. God, and Jonah. Peter tells Stagolee that he’s not welcome in heaven. He asks, “Where all the colored folks at?” St. Peter says that they have all been sent to Hell, that colored folks aren’t welcome in Heaven because they had too much fun playing jazz and the blues instead of pious hymns.

So Stagolee goes to Hell, where he finds a rollicking party. Stagolee tries to go head to head with the Devil, who doesn’t understand Black Folk much, but the Devil simply gives up his pitchfork to Stagolee, who puts it away on the shelf.

Stagolee becomes the new ruler of Hell.
Exaggerations in "Stagolee":

--The bad-ass five-year-old boy running away and surviving, even thriving

--Stagolee’s super human strength

--Stagolee not dying, even after being hung

--Death fearing him

--Stagolee rising from the dead

--God fearing Stagolee

--The Devil fearing Stagolee

--The Devil giving up without a fight

--Stagolee taking the place of the Devil.
"Stagolee" retold in 1969 (by Julius Lester (links to the author's home page, blog, and photographs), during the Vietnam War, Hippie and Black Power Movements (Flower Power), and Student Protests:

The above summary does not address the Vietnam War, but Julius Lester retold this legendary story to offer a commentary on the times, particularly the war, race relations, emerging technology (references to computers and the computerization of death), music of the times, and hypocrisy.
_________________________________________________________

Links to Various Readings, Notes, Exercises, Handouts, Prompts, etc.

Search This Site

My Cloud

Academic Writing (40) American Literature (37) African-American Literature (36) LIT160 Introduction to Literature (33) Syllabus (31) Creative Writing (30) Spring 2008 (30) Prompts (14) Paraphrasing (11) Summarizing and Paraphrasing (11) 19th Century American Literature (10) The Piano Lesson (8) 20th Century American Literature (7) Academic Writing Assignments (7) Persuasive Essay (7) Argumentative Essay (6) August Wilson (5) Character Studies (5) Creative Non-fiction (5) Group Exercise (5) Summary (5) drama (5) Letters (4) Creative Writing--Peer Review (3) Critiquing (3) Outline or Summary (3) Summarizing (3) Worksheets (3) 19th Century Poetry (2) APA Reference List (2) APA documentation (2) APA in-text citations (2) APA internal citations (2) Academic Writing In-class Exercise Notes (2) Academic Writing Syllabus (2) American Literature Syllabus (2) Authority Creditibilty Objectivity Currency Reputation Coverage Relevance (2) Avery (2) Body Paragraphs (2) Brainstorming (2) Characterization (2) Creative Writing Syllabus (2) Creative Writing Terminology (2) Flash Fiction (2) Folksong (2) Langston Hughes (2) Lymon (2) Negro Spirituals (2) Notes (2) President Barack Obama (2) Story Structure (2) Topic selection (2) Topic sentences (2) Trifles (2) Website Evaluation (2) Writing Assignment (2) counterarguments (2) oral tradition (2) 19th Century English Literature (1) 20th Century Poetry (1) A Letter to His Master (1) Abverbs (1) Academic Desk (1) Academic Writing Syllabus Fall 2009 (1) Academic Writing Syllabus Spring 2010 (1) Academic Writing Tasks (1) AcademicDesk.org (1) Alice Walker (1) American Literature Syllabus Fall 2009 (1) American Literature Syllabus Fall 2010 (1) Announcements (1) Assignments (1) Atlanta Compromise (1) Barack Obama (1) Berniece (1) Blues (1) Booker T. Washington (1) Books on Reserve (1) Boy Willie (1) Children's Literature (1) Christmas (1) Code song (1) Comparison and Contrast (1) Conclusion (1) Contact Information (1) Controversial Literature (1) Creative Writing Syllabus Fall 2009 (1) Creative Writing Syllabus Spring 2010 (1) Creative Writing--Self Review (1) Determining Story Structure (1) Dialect (1) Dialogue (1) Dialogue Exercise (1) Dialogue Tags (1) Doaker (1) Elements of Non-fiction (1) Epilogues (1) Essay Structures (1) Explicating a Poem (1) F.A.N.B.O.Y.S. (1) FANBOYS (1) Fiction (1) Five-Paragraph Paper (1) Folk Tales (1) Formal Letter Format (1) Formal Letter Templates (1) Found Poem (1) Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1) Frederick Douglass (1) Full Text of Nat Turner's Confession (1) Genesis (1) Grace (1) Great Speeches (1) Guide Questions (1) Helen Bannerman (1) Henry Highland Garnet (1) Historical Outline (1) How to Summarize and Paraphrase (1) Introduction (1) Jazz (1) Job Application Letter (1) Kate Chopin (1) Links (1) Little Black Sambo (1) Malcolm X (1) Maretha (1) Martin Luther King Jr. (1) Mary Robison (1) Merged Texts (1) My Bondage and My Freedom (1) Nat Turner (1) Nat Turner's Confession (1) New Christmas (1) New Name (1) New Year (1) Nymph Time (1) Old Christmas (1) Peer Review (1) Plagiarism (1) Poem (1) Point-of-View (1) Private vs Public Writing (1) Purple Prose (1) Questions (1) Questions for Analysis (1) Relevance of Sources (1) Reporting Verbs (1) Response Papers (1) Rough Drafts (1) Rules of Formal Letter Writing--British and American (1) Section I.A (1) Section I.B (1) Section I.C (1) Section I.D (1) Section I.E (1) Section II (1) Section II.A (1) Section II.B (1) Section II.C (1) Section II.D (1) Section II.E (1) Section II.F (1) Section II.G (1) Section II.H (1) Section II.I (1) Section II.J (1) Section II.K (1) Section II.L (1) Section II.M (1) Section II.N (1) Section II.O (1) Section II.P (1) Section III (1) Section III.A (1) Section III.B (1) Section III.C (1) Section III.D (1) Section III.E (1) Section III.F (1) Section IV (1) Self Review (1) Sequels (1) Short story (1) Six Paragraph Paper (1) Song (1) Sorrow Songs (1) Story Analysis (1) Summarizing and Paraphrasing Poems (1) Table of Links (1) The Bible (1) The Color Purple (1) The Killer Husband--Five Versions (1) The Owl at Purdue (1) The Research Challenge (1) The Weary Blues (1) Time Nymph (1) Transitions (1) Types of Characters (1) Types of Plagiarism (1) Types of Webpages (1) W. E. B. Du Bois (1) Walt Whitman (1) Wining Boy (1) Writing Assignments (1) Writing for Different Rhetorical Occasions (1) Yours (1) conjuration (1) coodinating conjunctions (1) email spam (1) hoodoo (1) writing journals (1)