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THE CHRONICLES OF OKLAHOMA
national literary tradition would depend upon folklore, if, as Gene Bluestein
suggests in T he Voice of the Folk: Folklore and American L~iterary T heory,
folklore of "the lower layers of society" is "the major source of materials
which sophisticated society uses to fashion its literary expression."" Folk-
lore is, Bluestein emphasizes, the foundation for national culture.
When folklore is seen as a major source for literary expression, it becomes
important to understand how George Milburn used folklore in Oklahoma
Town, and it becomes important to understand Milburn's attitude toward
the "lower layers of society." Milburn recreated Ozark storytelling scenes by
imitating, consciously or unconsciously, the storyteller's free and discontin-
uous train of thought and by relying for humor upon the ignorance of the
stories' characters. But the tales of Oklahoma Town are not only consistent
with Ozark lore, they are also part of an oral anecdote tradition which
transcends Ozark boundaries. In Milburn's particularization of the oral
anecdote tradition to a northeastern Oklahoma scene, he created what critics
have seen as the anti-rural elements of Oklahoma Town.
Milburn's manipulation of specific Ozark tales is apparent in several of
the Oklahoma Town tales, which have close parallels in Ozark lore. Mil-
burn's "A Young Man's Chance" is the story of Julian Reynolds who is
invited to a possum hunt at Old Man Barker's."I That night, after the
hunt, Barker, Julian and Barker's granddaughter shared the cabin's one
bed. During the night, while the moon is shining, coyotes attack Barker's
chicken coop. Barker runs out to the coop. In his absence, Julian does not
seduce the granddaughter, but rather, he jumps up to eat the beans left
over from dinner. Julian is one of many folk characters who find strange
bedfellows, but yet remain chaste. *
The Ozarks contributed several tales about a couple's chaste sleeping
together. "A Young Man's Chance" is a close copy of this folk hillbilly
anecdote recorded by Vance Randolph in Funny Stories from Arkansas:"
A traveller spent the night in a backwoods cabin. They had green beans for
supper, but the stranger did not get as many as he wanted. He watched
regretfully as the half-emptied platter was put back in the cupboard. There
was only one bed . .. [which they shared ], the host occupying the middle
1E Gene Bluestein. The Voice of the Folk: Folklore and American Literary Theory ( Am-
herst: University of Massachuseuts Press. t973), p. iii.
17 George Milburn, Oklahoma Town (Freeport, New Jersey: Book[ for Libraries Press, 1959),
PP. 158-162.
18 Stith Thompson. Motil-Inder of Folk Litraarv- (Bloomington: Indianm University Studies,
1935). P. 292.
19 Vance Randolph, Funny Storiet from Arkansar (Girard, Kansas: E. Haldeman-Julius,
1943). pp. 23-24.
312