Question

Q- After reviewing the passage from “The People Could Fly,” write two to four sentences explaining which details are factual and which are fictional.

passage- "Then, many of the people were captured for Slavery. The ones that could fly shed their wings. They couldn’t take their wings across the water on the slave ships. Too crowded, don’t you know.

The folks were full of misery, then. Got sick with the up and down of the sea. So they forgot about flyin when they could no longer breathe the sweet scent of Africa.

Say the people who could fly kept their power, although they shed their wings. They kept their secret magic in the land of slavery. They looked the same as the other people from Africa who had been coming over, who had dark skin. Say you couldn’t tell anymore one who could fly from one who couldn’t."

—“The People Could Fly,”
Virginia Hamilton

Answer 1

Factual detail: The folks were full of misery, then. Got sick with the up and down of the sea.

Fictional detail: The ones that could fly shed their wings. They couldn't take their wings across the water on the slave ships.

Explanation:

'The People Could Fly' is a book authored by Virginia Hamilton which consists of twenty four folk tales regarding animals, fairy tales, tales related to supernatural and so on.

From the passage, we can one out that it consist of details which are factual and which aren't true. The line, '"The ones that could fly shed their wings. They couldn't take their wings across the water on the slave ships" is a fictional one mainly because in reality, people cannot really fly.

Another detail from the passage which says 'The folks were full of misery, then. Got sick with the up and down of the sea' is a factual detail. This is because folks where taken from their home on ships, and there is a likelyhood of sea sickness for many people who travel on ship.

Answer 2

Sample Response: The folktale uses real historical details, such as the crowded ships enslaved people were forced to travel in. However, the folktale says that enslaved people lost their wings, when what they really lost was their freedom.