In five pages this paper chronicles the transformation of the novel's protagonist which is fully realized at the conclusion of the story. Three sources are cited in the bibliography.
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the path of self discovery. However, the protagonist of Charles Johnsons book, Middle Passage, is given the unique gift of traveling them both, and as a result of traveling one,
finds the other. Middle Passage can be said to be more than just a story of a freed slave and his epic travels, but is rather a journey of the
heart and growth of the soul. The story itself begins with the protagonist, Rutherford Calhoun, running from the underworld. He is bad and he knows he is bad.
"How I fell into this life of living off others, of being a social parasite, is a long sordid story best
shortened for those who, like the Greeks, prefer to keep their violence offstage"(Johnson, 2).
He has gotten in over his head with the local gangster. To compound matters, he has backed himself into a romantic situation with his girlfriend, the local school marm,
and nuptials are imminent. Path of least resistance? Run away. Which he does. Rutherford stows away on the worst possible ship that he could have chosen. Rutherford is a
freed black man and has just hopped onboard a slaving ship headed for Africa. The ships captain is a dwarf named Ebenezer Falcon, who has Ahab-like characteristics in the way
he deals with the members of his crew. He is so harsh, in fact, that his crew begin to speak of mutiny, as well as the slaves in the hold,
who plot revenge and escape. The captain, in return for not throwing him overboard for stowing away, makes Rutherford a spy to find out what the crew are up to.