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LITR 4332 American Minority Literature Model Assignments Research Project Submissions 2013 |
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Niki Bippen
April 25, 2013
Trying to Deceive Someone? Ask the
Trickster How!
Throughout history, the trickster archetype
has shown up in oral tradition, written literature, and these characters are
even making appearances in modern movies and television shows.
“Characterized by paradox, duality, cleverness, shape-shifting,
duplicity, and a knack for survival, trickster figures are appealing in their
ability to assert their individuality and shatter boundaries and taboos” (Lewis,
Winchell, and Webb). These
characteristics have helped them survive the centuries and to maintain a
permanent place in modern society. From
the Native American Coyote who is responsible for Creation as well as
manipulating others in order to fulfill his selfish desires to stubborn
characters who seemingly lack intellect like Wile E. Coyote, the trickster
archetype appears to be timeless, enjoyable to watch or study, and at times,
necessary. This archetype brings about
much needed change, adapts to fit every situation, and is the ultimate
survivalist. Tricksters also employ the
tactic of befriending their prey in order to accomplish their task.
A lot of them will pretend that they are coming to the aid of the prey
when in reality they are really manipulating them in order to get what they
want. Regardless of the tactic used,
tricksters are almost always incredibly affective at getting what they want in
some manner or another.
When discussing tricksters, it is important
to understand what exactly a trickster archetype is.
Characters of this archetype “often appear as pranksters and or
mischief-makers” and can even play roles in Creation/Origin stories” (White).
Tricksters are prone to manipulating others in order to get what they
want or to accomplish a goal; this manipulation can be done in order to better
mankind, or in order to fulfill the trickster’s greedy/selfish nature.
It is also important to note that no matter what difficulty is faced by
the trickster, he will always overcome it.
Tricksters are survivalists and will always triumph; they may not win the
battle, but they will always overcome adversary in some manner.
For example, Wile E. Coyote is constantly getting hurt, but somehow he
manages to live. The Native American
Coyote trickster follows these traits and so do other tricksters; it is what
defines their archetype.
Tricksters can also be human beings; they do
not necessarily have to be an animal, although in Native American stories,
animal tricksters are more common.
Blue-Star Woman comes across two in “the Widespread Enigma Concerning Blue-Star
Woman”. Like other tricksters, they use
manipulation and deception to trick Blue-Star Woman.
The fact that Blue-Star Woman is unaware that she is being tricked is
also common in trickster tales. Although
the prey often figures it out, it is typically too late.
In the story, it is even mentioned while the tricksters are eating that
“coyotes in midwinter could not have been more starved” (White).
This is an obvious parallel between Coyote the trickster and these two
tricksters. Like Coyote in a lot of
tales, these two tricksters disguise themselves as relatives of Blue-Star Woman
in order to conceal their true identity and motives.
Coyote will oftentimes act like he is a friend to his prey in order to
gain their trust to make it easier to manipulate them; Blue-Star Woman’s
“nephews” are using the same tactic. The
trickster is often very successful when using this tactic except in the case
that their prey catches on as is usually the case when Wile E. Coyote attempts
to act like a friend to Roadrunner. Like
previously stated, tricksters are keen on using manipulation and deception in
order to reach a goal; they simply do not have any other means of getting what
they want.
Reflecting on the prey of tricksters,
Blue-Star Woman is the prime example of what tricksters like to prey upon.
They look for opportunities and disguise their true motives by appealing
to something that their prey wants or needs.
In the case of Blue-Star Woman, her “nephews” pretend to be Indians in
order to gain her trust. After they have
gained her trust, they begin to try and manipulate her in order to get what they
want: which is “half of [her] land money when [she] gets it” (White).
When Blue-Star Woman appears apprehensive, they quickly add “wouldn’t you
rather have half a crust of bread than none of all?” (White).
Obviously, Blue-Star Woman would; she is starving, freezing, and poor and
the tricksters know this. They are
counting on her need for land and food in order to fully manipulate her.
Luckily for tricksters, she does not recognize their deception and
agrees. This is stereotypical of how
tricksters work: they look for something that their prey needs and pretend to
offer it while sneakily getting what they want from their unsuspecting prey.
By befriending their prey, it makes the deception that much easier for
the trickster.
Of all the tricksters, Coyote is probably the
most well-known. This trickster appears
in Native American creation stories, poetry, and lore and even makes an
appearance on Warner Brothers’ cartoons in the form of Wile E. Coyote.
Coyote’s personality and goals change depending on the story, but the
primary characteristics of his archetype remain prevalent.
He will always overcome difficulty and survive the challenge, and he will
always use manipulation to either get his way, or bring about positive change.
Coyote might be a positive trickster or a negative one, pursuing selfish
goals but again, he will always bear the characteristics of a trickster.
“In some Native American coyote myths, Coyote is a revered
culture hero who creates, teaches, and helps humans; in others, he is a sort of
antihero who demonstrates the dangers of negative behaviors like greed,
recklessness, and arrogance; in still others, he is a comic trickster character,
whose lack of wisdom gets him into trouble while his cleverness gets him back
out. In some Native coyote stories, he is even some sort of combination of all
three at once” (Native American Indian Coyote Mythology).
These different roles that both Coyote and
all tricksters play are clearly defined in today’s society.
The modern version of Coyote is demonstrated clearly by Warner Brothers
who introduce Wile E. Coyote. Wile E.
Coyote desires to eat the Roadrunner character and is constantly devising new
plans in order to accomplish this goal.
Every plan, however, fails miserably and causes him severe bodily harm.
Yet in every episode, Wile continues the same pattern hoping for
different results. It can be argued that
this is foolish pride and while certainly that can have a lot to do with it,
there are other reasons for Wile’s seeming lack of intelligence and the fact
that many other tricksters walk this same path.
“He is often fooled and astonished by the outcome of his own pranks. He
survives this, then goes onto not learning by his mistakes and makes bigger
ones. He denotes both folly and wisdom and the balance of the two.
Wisdom is hidden in the foolery.
He may have lost the skirmish, but [he] remains unbeaten” (Stefko).
In other words, Wile not only provides comic relief, but he also
demonstrates his wisdom in the foolery: he is able to craft these very
intelligent designs and it can be argued that it is only though dumb luck that
they fail. Wile like most tricksters,
however, will always pick himself up (sometimes literally) and try again, never
fully losing the war; only the battle.
When looking at the positive characteristics
of Coyote the trickster, one should consider his role in Origin/Creation
stories. In one of these stories, Coyote
is credited with bringing fire to mankind like Prometheus.
In this story, “coyote and his friends devise a plan to steal fire from
those who are hoarding it. Coyote wanders
into the camp and lies down by the fire and pretends to sleep while his friends
create noise in the bushes and distract the guardians.
Once the guardians are distracted, Coyote steals the fire and escapes
into the forest with the fire” (reachmentor).
This story demonstrates the manipulative and tricky side of the
archetype; Coyote used tricks and his wit in order to get what he wants.
However, this was all done for the benefit of others; not just himself.
Again, the trickster does not have to necessarily be a negative
character.
Coyote also appears in Origin/Creation
stories and poetry. He appears in Peter
Blue Cloud’s poem entitled “The Cry”. In
this poem, he discusses how things came into being and mentions Coyote at the
tail end of the poem.
“So, I have begun Creation with a cry.
When I begin to create the universe,
I must remember to give the cry
a very special place.
Perhaps
I'll call the cry
Coyote” (Blue Cloud).
Although this is certainly a tricky poem to
understand, it can be argued that all of Creation began with Coyote, who was
given a “special place”, which is probably his place in folklore as something to
be worshipped, appreciated, and as a creature full of knowledge and lessons.
Essentially, Coyote could have been the very first creature to roam Earth
and should be respected, especially since he is credited with creation and
teaching the Native Americans many important lessons.
He teaches them to survive, to laugh at themselves, and that they must
always push forward, regardless of the adversaries faced.
In
all of the Creation/Origin stories that Coyote appears in, it is important to
note that he often fumbles and messes up at some point, but is always able to
recover and salvage his mess. In some of
these stories, Coyote is often credited as being a Creator.
Peter Blue Cloud refers to Coyote as the “dream [that] was Creation. /
And Creation was the cry/ seeking to begin something, / but it didn’t know what”
(White). Coyote desires to create
something, but simply does not know what he wants to create or how to go about
doing so. This is stereotypical of
tricksters; they want something badly, but do not necessarily know how to go
about obtaining it. Most of the time,
they fumble and employ many methods in order to get what they want.
Coyote is often seen struggling to obtain his goals, and is not quite
sure how to accomplish the task at hand.
After many failures, Coyote will always triumph in some manner because that is
the nature of the trickster: they never fully lose.
Peter Blue Cloud acknowledges this in his poem.
Coyote will also succeed because of his ability to manipulate and
deceive; he is really good at this and after enough attempts, he will succeed.
Coyote learns pretty quickly how to hide his secret agenda.
The “negative” trickster, however, does not
always need to fail in order to convey a message.
In the story “Coyote the Hungry,” we see a very manipulative and selfish
trickster who also appears to lack intelligence and wit.
In this tale, we find a “very hungry but cowardly Coyote wandering around
trying to find something to eat. As he is
searching, he happens across an opossum that he attempts to eat but fails, so
the opossum teases him relentlessly until a branch breaks.
Once on the ground, Coyote beats the opossum senseless and wanders off,
not realizing that the opossum was faking until he turns around and sees the
opossum sitting back in the tree triumphantly” (Coyote the Hungry).
Rather than give up or take on a defeatist attitude, Coyote simply
wanders off in search of easier prey and after some intelligent use of
manipulation, has turkey for dinner. It
becomes obvious at this point that although Coyote appeared senseless at first,
he is actually quite intelligent; he is able to learn from his mistakes, adapt,
and use some of the same manipulation used upon him in order to survive.
Even though Coyote is selfish, manipulative, and not a very pleasant
character in this tale, it teaches the reader to never give up and to adapt
their strategy in order to survive or accomplish a goal.
Despite being a negative trickster character in this tale, there is still
a positive lesson to be learned.
When looking at both negative and positive
tricksters, it should be noted that there is almost always a lesson to be
learned from this archetype. An obvious
lesson that tricksters teach is that it is important to adapt in order to
accomplish a goal. It is also important
that even though the task at hand might be difficult, one must never give up.
In the previous story, Coyote clearly demonstrates these lessons.
Although he was probably very upset, he did not hold a grudge against
opossum and used this as a learning experience in order to find some dinner.
Because of this, Coyote did not go hungry.
“Coyote is [thus] simultaneously wise and foolish, but survive[s]”
(Lewis, Winchell, and Webb). Coyote is
certainly outsmarted by opossum and is foolish for falling for the trick, but he
is wise enough to move forward in search of easier prey.
He is able to trick and manipulate a turkey into falling victim to him,
thus insuring his survival. This ability
to manipulate and survive is one of the most appealing traits of a trickster;
especially to Native Americans. They had
a great respect for this.
Tricksters also teach people through their
own mistakes. They teach them how to be
survivalists, how to overcome adversary, how to adapt to situations, how to
laugh at oneself, and they also teach others more about their own flaws and
shortcomings. Both Coyote and Wile E.
Coyote are experts in teaching these lessons.
“In the antics of the Coyote Trickster, people sometimes learn more about
their own weaknesses and foolishness. This figure teaches through his mistakes
and by being a bad example for the Indians.
Through Coyote’s actions the Native Americans learn to laugh at
themselves and their occasional acts of self-deceit” (Lewis, Winchell, and
Webb). The Coyote trickster almost always
appears foolish, thus showing people how not to act through his shortcomings.
Although the positive trickster teaches the Native Americans how to overcome
adversities, the bad examples are nonetheless just as important.
Some of the best lessons are learned by watching others fail and learning
how to avoid that path. Thus, Coyote the
bad example trickster is just as important as Coyote the good example.
In conclusion, tricksters are “simply deluded
mortals, deceiving others and themselves most of all”.
They are survivalists who use manipulation to achieve a goal and
oftentimes end up deluding themselves into thinking that not only will their
technique work if they keep trying hard enough, but that nobody else will
suspect their trickery. They assume that
others are not as smart as they are and in some cases, the prey is outwitted by
Coyote but only after coyote has worked hard to trick them.
Even when Coyote the trickster succeeds immediately, his prey soon learns
that they were deceived and oftentimes set off to get even with Coyote.
One thing can always be said for this archetype, however, and that he
will always survive. Regardless of the
obstacle, Coyote will always walk away at least somewhat triumphantly; he may
fail at winning that particular battle, but he will live to fight another day.
He will also learn from this failure and adapt accordingly.
This archetype may be selfishly pursuing a goal that will only benefit
him, or he may be attempting to better humanity, but regardless of his path, the
trickster will continue to evolve, adapt, and survive.
Tricksters are timeless because of these traits, not only marking a
permanent place in Native American culture, but also cropping up in modern
society in the form of Wile E Coyote and other tricksters.
It should also be noted that the trickster is incredibly affective at
manipulating their prey into thinking that they are friends and that the
trickster is just trying to help them when in reality, the trickster has a
hidden agenda. It is all of these traits
combined that make the trickster not only entertaining, but educational.
It is safe to say that the trickster archetype will continue to survive
for generations to come.
Works Cited
American Culture." Historical and Cultural References in
Sherman Alexie. Web. 21 Mar 2013.
"Coyote the Hungry." First People- The Legends.
Web. March 4, 2013. <http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/CoyoteTheHungry-Caddo.html>.
"Native American Indian Coyote Mythology." Native Languages of the Americas
Website, Web. March 3, 2013. <http://www.native-languages.org/legends-coyote.htm>.
Lewis, Paige, Chelsea Winchell, and Jessica Webb. "Coyote as a
Trickster Figure in Native
Reachmentor . "Coyote Brings Fire." Legends, Myths, and Folk
Tales. N.p., 23 01 2008. Web.
Stefko, Jill. "Coyote, Pagan Symbol-Trickster." Paganism/Wicca. Suite101,
6 Aug 2007. Web.
White, Craig. "Terms & Themes." Coursesite for Craig White,
Literature & Humanities, UHCL.
