Trickster tales are stories that involve a trickster with magical power or intelligence who tricks his opponents and succeeds in the end by tricking the opponent into believing or doing something. Both the trickster and the opponents appear as human-like animals. “The Toad and the Donkey” written by Toni Cade Bambara talks about Toad and Donkey having a race. Donkey was overconfident in his ability thinking he would win while Toad went home to devise a plan getting help from his family. Toad’s family members lined up at every milepost, pretending that they were Toad and tricking Toad was much faster than Donkey. In the end, Donkey lost the race and decided not to run again. “Doc Rabbit Bruh Fox and Tar Baby” written by Virginia Esther Hamilton talks about Doc Rabbit and Bruh Fox building a house. Doc Rabbit was thirsty and tricked Bruh Fox into thinking that he was going to help a patient while in fact he took a drink of cream that Bruh Fox kept for himself. Bruh Fox was suspicious and made a tar baby to trap Doc Rabbit. Bruh Fox threw Doc Rabbit into the briar patch, not knowing it was Rabbit’s old home, so Doc Rabbit escaped. In both tales, the protagonist uses some type of trick to outsmart their opponent and win. Let’s discuss some attributes of trickster tales from these two stories in terms of characters, lessons learned, and authors and why they write such stories.
All trickster tales include two main characters: the trickster and the opponent, and each character has his own strengths and weaknesses that contribute to different thinking when reacting to the situation. The trickster tends to be dangerously disadvantaged and uses his intelligence to trick the opponent, while the opponent seems to have a large probability of winning at the beginning but losing at the end. In “The Toad and the Donkey”, Toad (the trickster) was slow but clever. Donkey (the opponent) was fast but easily fooled. Toad used his intelligence to devise a plan with his family to fool Donkey; Donkey was unprepared, got discouraged, and lost the game. To win, the character needs to take advantage of his own strengths and learn from the weakness. It doesn’t matter if the character has more strengths than weaknesses. It all depends on if the character could effectively apply his own strengths. If not, then the situation could be turned from being advantageous to disadvantageous. In “Doc Rabbit Bruh Fox and Tar Baby”, Doc Rabbit’s strength was to make scary sounds but his weakness was getting curious easily. Bush Fox’s strength was smart but weaknesses was getting scared and doing something that other people ask not to do. Doc Rabbit practiced his cleverness to fool Bush Fox with scary sounds so he could drink the cream. Bush Fox practiced his cleverness by making a Tar Baby to trap Doc Rabbit. Characters will always have things they are good at, and things that they are bad at. Both sides use their opponents’ weaknesses to make traps. This suggests that the trickster always thinks thoroughly and gets prepared in advance to set the traps by observing their opponents and predicting what and how they would react. All trickster tales feature a smart but disadvantaged character with a strong but sleazy opponent. From trickster tales, people could learn to make use of their own strengths to compensate for their weaknesses.
Trickster tales express many valuable themes that can be taken away via reading examples of the strategies that characters used in the trick. Readers could learn essential morals by understanding how and what the trickster and the opponent defeat and trick each other. In “The Toad and the Donkey '', Toad was physically small so Donkey underestimated Toad and thought he would win. At the same time Toad was thinking about how to win the race with the help from his family. This story shows some themes: people should not judge others by their appearance, people need to calm down and think when facing a problem, working as a team brings many benefits than working as an individual, and having family support could help people overcome difficulties. All of these themes are essential and helpful in daily life. In “Doc Rabbit Bruh Fox and Tar Baby”, Doc Rabbit non-stop wanted to drink the cream that Bruh Fox saved for himself. Doc Rabbit’s curiosity led him to fall into the trap of Tar Baby where Bruh Fox set. When Doc Rabbit was trapped, Bruh Fox let Doc Rabbit decide what to do next. This tells us some morals. People should not be greedy since greediness could cause negative consequences; sometimes being curious might lead to some troubles, so it is better to be observant before showing curiosity; People should not always follow what others say; instead, people should think ahead and have their own opinions. Those easy-to-understand morals have a great impact on people’s daily life. Trickster tales teach readers important themes and valuable morals which people could apply into their daily life ro make their life better and world in a better place.
The writers of American trickster tales are great well-known authors who published influential literature for children. The intention for writing American trickster tales is to hope children to take away the themes that are helpful to sculpt their personality and are useful for their whole life. Toni Cade Bambara, the author of “The Toad and the Donkey” is an African American author. In 1980 Bambara published “The Salt Eaters” which earned the American Book Award. Her most notable works are “Blues Ain’t No Mockin Bird” and “The Salt Eaters”. Virginia Hamilton, the author of the “Doc Rabbit Bruh Fox and Tar Baby” is also an African American author. In 1975 Hamilton won the Newbery Medal for her famous novel “M. C. Higgins, the Great.” Both Bambara and Hamilton are African American writers. Not only are they well known for their works but also they have won many awards. They both are skilful writers who write short simple stories of trickster tales for children. Although they are just writing simple trickster tales, they are not wasting their talent. In fact, these authors are well known, so that their work is more influential on people. The purpose of why Bambara and Hamilton write trickster tales is to teach children how to be morally upright in order to survive effectively in society. The plot they write is easy to understand, the characters they describe are not complicated to understand, and the themes are pertinent, which make them accessible to children. Both Bambara and Hamilton explain important morals in a simple and understandable way to children, hoping to grow their personality, minds, and actions in a positive way. Learning all kinds of morals is a good practice, since then people will be able to deal with all kinds of problems or situations. Well known authors write simple and understandable trickster tales for children to teach them many lessons that would be valuable and useful in shaping their personality.
Trickster tales are stories in which a trickster performs tricks on his opponents. Generally speaking, the authors of trickster tales depict a small but smart character with a powerful character, and usually the weak character wins because of his wits and tricks that deceive the powerful character. That is, the trickster makes use of his own strengths to compensate for his weaknesses. In addition, trickster tales have educational purposes in teaching people, especially children, on how to behave and treat others. They directly convey themes and rightful ideas to the minds of the upbringing. They help people to achieve their virtuous self and make them suitable with every type of situation. Moreover, the writers of trickster tales are great authors in writing children literature who won many awards. The authors had a very large influence on literature and made trickster tales in order to teach people about upright morals. They write short simple stories of tricksters with unique plot and human-like characters, making the tales more interesting and appealing for kids. Tricksters tales are short but they are not superficial works because children could learn many valuable morals in such a simple and understandable way.
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