Tricksters dominate the folk tradition that peoples of African descent developed in the United States, especially those tales that were influenced by African folk tradition, landscape, and wildlife. There are two stories for example. The Toad and The Donkey, The story is about The Toad, the donkey and the spider had a race on the island, but the donkey is so fast that nobody can win him a race, so the toad uses a trick to win the donkey. The trick is everyone spreads out along the path in the bushes, then at every milepost when Mr. Donkey howls out. Finally the toad lost the game, and decided never to run anymore. In Doc Rabbit Bruh Fox and Tar Baby, The story is about The Rabbit and The Fox are building a house. During this time, The rabbit made some weird voice and told the fox to check it, he made it three times in order to eat all the cream and ran away. The fox found the cream was eaten by the rabbit, and made a tar baby. The rabbit came back to drink water, and kicked the tar baby, but it tied his foot. The fox was preparing to throw the rabbit into the thorny briars, but the thorny briars was the rabbit's home.
There’s a main theme of all the trickster tales which is the weak against the strong by wisdom and tricks The weak definitely can't defeat the strong by their original power. The weak have to use tricks and smart brain scam the strong in order to win them.
The Toad used the trick which is spread out along the path in the bushes, then at every milepost when the Donkey howls out, one of them steps out and howls too. Finally the Toad won the Donkey at the races.Through this experience, it shows that the Toad's speed is way slower than the Donkey, but the Toad used a trick to break the donkey's psychology and won the race. In the Doc Rabbit Bruh Fox and Tar Baby, The Rabbit used the weird sound to lead away the fox, and finally scammed the Fox to put him into the thorny briars and escape. The Rabbit took advantage of the fox's weakness, ate all the cream, and finally escaped from the Fox. In a sense, Play tricks can offer individuals ephemeral and false power and strength.
The African American authors would like to write the trickster tales to get more strength to be Equality with native Americans.During the racist period, the African American suffered lots of discrimination and unfair treatment. The Native American always bullied them, even threatening the African Americans’ lives. So they wanted to use an illusory strength to make them stronger in order to stop being bullied by the Native American. For example, in the Toad and The Donkey, The Toad is slower than the Donkey, but he still throws down a challenge to the donkey, and finally uses tricks to win the Donkey. Through this experience, The author compares the African American to the Toad, and compares the Donkey to the Caucasian. The Toad used the tricks to make him ‘stronger’ in order to defeat the Donkey. In the Doc Rabbit Bruh Fox and Tar Baby, The Rabbit is weak but gloomy, so he used a weird sound to scam the Fox in order to eat the cream, and finally have a narrow escape from the fox. The Rabbit is compared to the African American, and the fox is compared to the Native American, The Rabbit escapes from the Fox by inveracious strength. African American people want to live a fair and peaceful life with Caucasian, so they use fake strength to balance with the Caucasian.
Trick will only bring immediate benefits, but will cause long-term negative effects.
tricks can offer people inveracious strength but not actually. On the contrary, they will fail and lose physically. The Rabbit scammed the fox 2 times, but finally he escaped into the thorny briars and will never communicate to anybody. Although the Rabbit ate all of the cream and scammed the Fox into putting him into the thorny briars, he lost trust from the Fox and will never make friends. The Toad plays tricks on the donkey and cheats on him, finally the donkey decides never to run again, and the Toad loses a friend forever. Although the Toad won the race, he had made an impact on the Donkey's psychology so that the donkey never ran again. Tricks can just offer individual false satisfaction with themselves, but not the actual physical strength.
In conclusion, American trickster tales, especially those influenced by African folklore, show us the power of using your brain over brawn. Characters like the Toad and the Rabbit teach us that being clever and using tricks can help the weak beat the strong. These stories reflect the struggles African Americans faced in history, where they had to rely on their wit to survive in a world that wasn’t fair. However, while tricking others can give you a quick win, it often comes with long-term consequences, like losing trust or being left alone. In the end, these tales remind us that while being smart can help you get by, it’s not always the best way to build real connections or find lasting strength.
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