Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky

Uncle Cotton, known as “Uncle C” for most of the narrative, is the main antagonist in the novel. Uncle Cotton is a representation of the historic role that cotton played in the Southern economy. The South’s desire to increase cotton production, especially after the invention of the cotton gin, a machine for processing cotton, did not die out in the United States as many predicted. Furthermore, industries such as clothmaking in the North were so reliant on Southern cotton that Southern states believed the North would do nothing when the South finally decided to leave the U.S. over threats to end slavery. In the world of the novel, the truth of who Uncle Cotton really is becomes progressively clearer. Nevertheless, Uncle C is a static character whose defining traits of greed, arrogance, and cruelty never change.

Uncle C first emerges as a haint, or a ghost, who escapes his prison, a bottle in one of the bottle trees. He co-opts the angry and sad Maafa to gain power, using his own power of manipulation. His power is ultimately the result of his ability to hide his true role in the lives of Black people both in the historical American South and in MidPass: He controls their story and history, in other words. He forces Tristan to support his path to becoming a king in Alke first by threatening Tristan and later by attempting to bribe him. These actions reflect the strength of the desire of the South to ignore the pain of slavery in its history is.

Uncle C ultimately falls because Tristan tells the story of this pain from the perspective of enslaved people. That this is the downfall of Uncle Cotton underscores the power of personal and historical storytelling to allow Black people to claim their proper place in history.

“Maafa,” means “a disaster or devastating tragedy” in the Kiswahili language of the African continent, according to anthropologist Marimba Ani. She uses this term to describe what happened to people of African descent once they entered the slave trade. Her 1988 academic book, entitled Let the Circle Be Unbroken: The Implications of African Spirituality in the Diaspora provides further details on the concept.

In the book, the Maafa is the apparent villain and the one unleashing many of the creatures that terrorize the land. The Maafa’s minions are all created out of fragments of the physical instruments used to imprison enslaved people, including slave ships (the Maafa is itself in the form of one), hand- and leg-cuffs, and the stinging insects that made work in agricultural settings a misery for enslaved people.

In the novel, the Maafa is a dynamic character who goes from being the villain the gods of MidPass attempted to banish when they first arrived in MidPass, to being a suffering creature who is willing to surrender in exchange for the truth about its history being remembered. The Maafa is included as a character to reinforce the importance of remembering the story of enslavement and survival.

Anansi the Spider, also known as the Weaver, is a figure based on an archetype, or a universal figure, out of West African folklore, specifically Akan and Ashanti. In these stories, Anansi is a trickster whose powers include lying, cleverness, and storytelling (sometimes called lies in Black and African culture) rather than strength or bravery. In traditional African and Black American folklore, these skills allow Anansi to overcome much more powerful foes despite his small size. The character traits with Anansi are sometimes instead assigned to Brer Rabbit.

In the novel, Anansi is masked as Brer Rabbit throughout most of the narrative, but his presence is everywhere because of his association with storytelling. Tristan’s skills as a storyteller derive from Anansi, who is the keeper of all powerful stories. Anansi’s actions, including hoarding stories from many worlds and withholding key information from the gods of MidPass while he passes as Brer Rabbit, are the cause for the near destruction of Alke, MidPass, and the Ridge. In his Brer disguise, Anansi is unkind to Tristan and constantly makes Tristan doubt himself due to Brer’s accusations that Tristan is a coward.

Unlike the other gods of MidPass, Brer is a hidden adversary who gets in the way of Tristan becoming a hero. Tristan’s unmasking of Brer Rabbit as Anansi confirms the role of Anansi as trickster in the worldbuilding. The havoc Anansi manages to create shows the power of storytelling in the world of the novel.

In Black American folklore, John Henry was a physically powerful figure who used his hammer to chisel out the Big Bend Tunnel through a mountain in West Virginia. A common tall tale about John Henry is that he died in a contest against a steam-powered drill, making him a hero to working-class and Black people everywhere. Historical research on John Henry suggests he may well have been forced to his labor as a part of a convict labor contract, a scheme whereby Black people arrested for minor actions such as loitering were imprisoned and then auctioned off by states to private businesses in exchange for money that went to the state. In the novel, John Henry is a giant with a magical hammer. He is a static character who begins and ends the narrative as a wise, even-tempered man who teaches Tristan to exercise self-control to tap into his powers as a storyteller.

Brer Fox is a recurring figure in Black American folklore. He usually appears as the stronger counterpart and antagonist to Brer Rabbit. Slow-witted Brer Fox was popularized in Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus Southern folklore stories in the late 1800s and by Song of the South, a 1946 Disney film that is currently not available on Disney’s streaming service over concern that the nostalgic representation of slavery and representation of Black people are racist. In the novel, by contrast, Fox is a steady, heroic figure who sacrifices himself to save the people of MidPass. His conversations with Tristan after Fox’s capture by the MidPass serve as a form of mentorship that allows Tristan to mature and learn to use good judgment before acting.

A mythical creature based on the Tar Baby, a silent, sticky figure that Brer Fox made to trap Brer Rabbit, Gum Baby is a creature made of gum sap. Gum Baby is gifted in many oral arts, including singing, telling stories, and stringing together rude and highly accurate insults aimed at other characters. Gum Baby is a central character whose actions—inciting the events of the novel by stealing a journal from Tristan, fighting off threats by using sap, and serving as a secret weapon that helps Tristan overcome Uncle Cotton—allow Tristan to become the hero he needs to be. Gum Baby should be a relatively minor character, but the importance of Gum Baby’s contributions drive home the message that heroes need to rely on others to accomplish great things.

In Akan culture, Nyame is the Sky God, an all-knowing, all-powerful figure who created many of the living creatures of the world, including the first human. He has many dealings with Anansi, including the one that gave Anansi the power of storytelling. In the novel, Nyame is still a sky god who holds power over the perception of reality, but he is also as vulnerable as anyone to the trickery of Brer Rabbit and the power of the Maafa. He is a static character whose gifts to Tristan (the discernment adinkra and good advice) prove crucial to Tristan’s success in his quest.

Another trickster, High John is a folk figure known for his ability to use conjure, or folk magic, to accomplish feats of strength, to outwit arrogant masters in his enslaved form, and to bring hopeful dreams to enslaved people. In the novel, High John has all these abilities as well, but he also serves as a truth teller who helps Tristan see that he must save the entire land, not just MidPass. High John’s ride, Old Familiar, serves as transportation that allows Tristan to survive at one point and travel with Anansi back to the hole.

Chestnutt is a tiny, physically weak figure whose intellect proves to be the key to Tristan’s quest surviving. Chestnutt is often underestimated by people like Anansi in his Brer Rabbit disguise due to Chestnutt’s small size. The outsized role that Chestnutt plays in saving Tristan’s quest communicates the idea that heroism requires collaboration and that heroes can take any form.

Thandiwe is the leader of the Ridge’s security forces, despite just being a teenager, and is also a princess of the Ridge. She is a static character whose bravery and fighting skills allow Tristan’s quest to succeed. Her other strength is the ability to be persuasive by appealing to people’s values, a skill she puts to use to convince the council of Ridge ancestors to hand the Story Box over to Tristan. Her presence in the novel is a representation of the many ways to be a hero, regardless of gender.