Today, many different kinds of stories are being read by readers of all ages around the world. One of these types of stories is the trickster tale. A trickster tale is characterized by having mainly two sides, the trickster, and the opponent. Usually, as the plot of a trickster tale goes, the trickster seems very weak and basically bad at everything physically, with the opponent being the opposite. It will turn out later in the story that the trickster has a brilliant idea and goes on to defeat the opponent. The story “The Toad and the Donkey” talks about Toad and Donkey having a physical race, with Donkey having the great advantage, but Toad outsmarts Donkey and wins the race. Another story, “Doc Rabbit Bruh Fox and Tar Baby”, talks about how Fox is very hard-working, and Rabbit is not. Fox tricks Rabbit into a trap, but Rabbit then tricks Fox into releasing him. Both of these stories are trickster tales with a trickster as well as an opponent.
To analyze a story, it is of especial importance to recognize and understand the individual characters of the story. In any trickster tale, there are patterns to any character that we are attempting to analyze. One of the most important things in analyzing these characters is to find the patterns that the characters are tending to have, mostly in the personality aspect. In “The Toad and the Donkey”, the toad was the trickster, and though he seemed powerless, he was very smart and tricked the donkey. In “Doc Rabbit Bruh Fox and Tar Baby”, both Rabbit as well as fox seemed honest and not the tricky type of person. But, they both tricked each other in the same way, which is utilizing the other’s weakness. From these stories we can find the general pattern for these trickster tales. Usually, the trickster’s weaknesses are all on the physical aspect, which is the opponent’s strength. The trickster’s strengths are mental, which is the opponent’s weakness. In general, the trickster is much more brilliant than the opponent, which is a great advantage to make up for the disadvantages. In fact, it is always that eventually the trickster will beat the opponent. Thus, we should always study the characters in order to gain a fuller understanding of the story.
It is also of benefit when analyzing trickster tales that we analyze the themes, or the message that the author is trying to get to us. Sometimes, the message will be very obvious, but other times, it may be very well hidden and hard to find and understand. This means that we as readers have to dig deeper in order to gain a further understanding of the story. In “The Toad and the Donkey”, some prevalent themes include our mind being able to make up for our physical abilities, and that we need to figure out what is going on at all times and be curious at a normal level. In “Doc Rabbit Bruh Fox and Tar Baby”, we learn that getting revenge on others can easily backfire and not end up very well for us. It also teaches us that we should be careful on what we should take in, or what we should actually do when others suggest something. These themes will not only help us gain a much deeper understanding of the particular stories we are trying to analyze, but they will also benefit us later in our lives. As you can see, it is important to recognize and study the themes of any story we may encounter.
In the literature of the African American trickster tale, we should consider the authors and how their expressions if ideas reflect into the story. As it is African American literature, we can realize that generally as African Americans, people have a specific reputation, judged based on the color of their skin. As African Americans, people can defy this idea in their works of literature. In “The Toad and the Donkey”, Toni Bambara shows that even when someone is of small size or seems weak, their strength in their mind can be powerful enough to make up for their physical weaknesses. In “Doc Rabbit Bruh Fox and Tar Baby”, Virginia Hamilton shows us that sometimes the more hard-working can have clever tricks up their sleeves. Through both of these stories, both of the African American authors try to get across the point that we should not judge one’s greatness or productivity from their appearance. Judgment should be made, and only be made on mental ideas, and in general people’s way of thinking. Therefore, developing ideas about the author’s thinking and how they express their ideas through writing is helpful for us to analyze an African American trickster tale, or trickster tales in general.
There are many stories which deserve to be read, and African American trickster tales are one of such books. There are many ways to analyze a story as well. As we read African American trickster tales, there are many strategies which we can utilize to deeply analyze the story. One of such strategies is to analyze the separate characters of the story, and the patterns they form to become a story. Specific to trickster tales, tricksters are always bad physically but much better mentally. Another strategy is to analyze the themes of a story like such. As to any story, such is the same. Themes are always so important to our analyzing because they are the final message the author wants to tell us of by writing the story. Also, African American authors apply some expression of their ideas into their writing as well, creating a flair that many authors do not have. A pattern to be recognized is that most of these African American authors want to express the theme of not judging by appearance in their trickster tales. From these ways of analyzing, we can gain a much deeper understanding of any story.
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