...The Winnebago Trickster Cycle Throughout history many people have tried to put themselves above nature. Most of the time people end up finding out that nature isn’t something to take for granted. Having stories to teach lessons to future generations is critical. That is why The Winnebago Trickster Cycle came into existence for the tribe. By keeping the story’s characters names simple like Trickster, it makes the story much easier to relate to its intended audience. Trickster definitely lived out his name in both stories, which had to do with nature. Between the two texts, The Winnebago Trickster Cycle 23-25 was more effective at teaching the lesson, that no one should put themselves above nature. Although humans are the superior beings on this planet, nature always finds a way to remind people how insignificant humans really are. Whether it is an outbreak of tornados, or just a really bad case of poison ivy, nature finds a way to remind. Trickster shows that side people think that they are indestructible. Nature also has a way of warning people of what is to come. An example of this today would be kids playing outside while there is thunder. In the beginning of this travel Trickster gets his warning. While on his second journey in the story, he comes upon a voice. The voice said, “He who chews me will defecate; he will defecate!”(108). Trickster then comes to find out that it is a bulb on a bush that is saying this. This is an example of nature warning him, ahead of time,...
Words: 615 - Pages: 3
...the Shape-Shifting Wolves or Werewolves creates a classic theme of Good vs Evil which lends itself to an enjoyable story. K’wa’iti is one with many names Dokibatt, the Transformer or Changer. In Quileute Legend he is often referred to as the Trickster. Trickster tales are found throughout many Native American tribes. In these tales, the trickster can perform tricks often attributed to having supernatural powers. Perhaps, it is just illusion rather than some divine power he is able to come back from the dead, shape-shift at times, and perform tasks similar to the creator of all things. But, if it is just illusion then why does the beaver now have a paddle tail? The trickster is an similar to a performing magician, using his powers he is able to create and make permanent the illusion. K’wa’iti does not follow the rules of the nature, many times maliciously, however generally there is a positive outcome of his meddling. His rule breaking ways take the form of thievery and tricks. K’wa’iti can be smart at times in dealing with conflict, however he is not perfect as he can make unwise decisions that leads to more turmoil. But in most legends things unfold as they should and all is not lost. Additional Native American Trickster Tales Manabozho then gathered up his birds, and taking them out upon the sandbar buried them–some with their heads protruding, others with the feet sticking out of the sand....
Words: 412 - Pages: 2
...“Goodbye uncle, he said to Thunder. Dont gamble. It is not what you do best.” Coyote said this in “Coyote Steals Fire” after Thunder lost at the dice game when coyote cheated, and had to give up the fire for everyone. Trickster tales are stories mainly dealing with gods and animals. “Master Cat” and “Coyote Seals Fire” are two examples of trickster tales that contain a various amount of similarities and differences. Between “Coyote steals Fire” and “Master Cat” the similarities in each Trickster tales are vast. Both tricksters in each tale were cunning because they had well thought out, diverse plans. For example, in “Coyote Steals Fire”, Coyote knew just how to distract the Thunder God so he could cheat at the dice game as soon as he looked...
Words: 514 - Pages: 3
...RPH 351 Haruka Koda (A1167731) 7/01/14 Transcending Myths: Trickster “The Power of Black Music: Interpreting its History from Africa to the United States”, by Samuel A. Floyd, observes a new way of listening to the music of black America, and appreciating its profound contribution to American music. Examining folklore, myths, music, and rituals, Floyd offers cultural heritage in modernism. He recognizes European influences, while demonstrating how much black music has continued to share with its African counterparts. One of these elements that African music has attributed is the element of “Tricksters.” Although Tricksters is a motif existent in times before Chris, Tricksters have been transmitted to be taught and learned in cultures in the West and Japan today. The archetypal “Trickster” is allegorical or a metaphorical teaching in stories of a polytheistic culture and religion. According to Floyd, in African stories, “Trickster tales are not just for humor, but to instill discipline and ingrain fear, a sense of accomplishment, pride, and humility”1 Floyd continues on to explain that stories, such as one’s with Tricksters, are transmitted into words and edited into methods for people to understand it better. Music is the example that he gives, noting that both people within and out of the culture will have ...
Words: 671 - Pages: 3
...Let me tell you the tale of the amazing Trickster. He is a powerful being who can alter reality in a finger snap and there is barely anything in the world that can kill him. One day there was two brothers who were walking and the reason they were was because they were going to their new nice house they bought in North America. Originally they were from Canada and the reason they wanted to leave Canada was they wanted to start a new fresh life in North America. The two brothers names were Michael and Martinez. They were really fine hunters, especially with there knives. When they were walking into their house, the Trickster was on the side walk and made a beam of light from the sky descend onto the brothers which he did by snapping his fingers...
Words: 333 - Pages: 2
...Modern Day Tricksters Presentation Notes: Bugs Bunny The modern day trickster verses The Coyote in the mythical day trickster Since as far back as time was recorded there have been tales of people and mythological creatures playing "tricks" on others. Today many of these tricksters are seen as characters in cartoons and movies. Some of the most famous are Bugs Bunny, The Mask, Ace Ventura, Wile E. Coyote, and Captain Jack Sparrow. Bugs Bunny is the most famous of all tricksters still in popularity today. Almost all of his stories he is being chased by the notorious Elmer Fudd. Instead of Bugs always running from his pursuer, he likes to play tricks on him to keep himself from getting caught. Bugs Bunny is very resourceful when it comes to trying to escape. He made the quote "Ehh, what's up doc?" famous. His trickery has made himself possibly the most popular cartoon of all time. Why is Bugs so popular in society? It is because he always wins. Each and every show he outsmarts his competition and tricks them into failure. . In order to understand Bugs Bunny as a trickster, it is important to review the characteristics of a trickster, Bugs Bunny’s attributes, and compare him with an older folktale. The trickster character has defining personal traits. In an analysis of the trickster, Leonard and McClure explain the trickster is known as the ousted person and his activities are looked upon as an outlaw, outrageous, out of bounds, or out of order. The trickster...
Words: 604 - Pages: 3
...In mythology, one of the main reasons that the trickster character holds an archetypical position is because they don’t simply symbolize trickery or deceit, they also exhibit intellect and secret knowledge. Specifically in Greek mythology, Prometheus is an excellent examples of a trickster who uses typically frowned upon means to achieve positive ends. “When gods and mortal men divided up an ox; Prometheus audaciously set out the portions, trying to deceive the mind of Zeus” (Devinney/Thury 486). When Zeus demands a sacrifice from humans, Prometheus presents him two different bundles of animal parts. Tricking him by making the bundle with the useful and edible animal parts look unappealing with bones on the top, encouraging Zeus to leave the...
Words: 292 - Pages: 2
...How can you judge another person based on the actions they take when you have no clue how they help? Tricksters deceive who they want in order to get what they desire no matter what tricks they have to use. They manipulate the minds of people, which may sound horrible, but it is not just for them. They do this to help people who are in need of something greater. People think tricksters are corrupted with greed and poisoned by evil but in reality they steal from selfish people and end up gifting the people in need with what they want. Tricksters use their dreadful powers to help and try to restore what characters need, instead of using their destructive abilities to extinguish the hopes of others into pieces. Tricksters often use their untrusting...
Words: 1037 - Pages: 5
...The trickster is in all of us. It may seem though we are far from it, but all of us have a little bit of the archetypical trickster and these similarities display themselves in subtle way that we disregard them altogether. Tricksters have been a part of our history for a very long time being handed down from generations to generations either verbally or transcribed to keep records for the future. Archetypes are symbolism of people and how they are perceived by the majority, and a trickster archetype is derived from that. When studying the trickster archetype it is important to explore all of the areas that make the trickster what it is. This includes its characteristics, roles, cultural purpose and evolution. They make up majority of what we now know as the archetypical trickster, an archetype we can all relate to. Tricksters have coinciding characteristics such as being witty, amoral and conniving, but they are said to be also compromised of contradictions and are the third party catalyst of the plot, not engaging fully into the story but just enough to essentially move the story further along. Firstly, “tricksters succeed by outsmarting or outthinking their opponents.” (Trudier)...
Words: 1452 - Pages: 6
...Characteristically a Trickster – A Critical Review He’s sly, cunning, good-looking and suave. He appears from nowhere and returns to the same. He is your friend and your enemy. Keep a close eye on him, but also believe what he says, for he may help you to see clearly. Who is this man? He is the TRICKSTER! He is present in nearly all Native American stories; however, the form to which he adapts is constantly changing. From dirty old men, to young good-looking heart breakers, the trickster provides an outlet for much humor, irony and truth. It is from the article “Ambigere: The Euro-American Picaro and the Native American” by Franchot Ballinger that most of the trickster qualities are described. “A roguish traveler(s)” (21-39), the Trickster is seen as a character who rebels against moral and civil code. Their tales, which exist mostly in myth, are notable for their lack of an adequate ending. The ending is nearly impossible to accomplish because the Trickster is a figure that never ends. Reappearing in nearly every Native American piece of fiction, the Trickster’s story continues, although the persona changes. “This young man (occasionally women) usually (by the standards of society) are of low birth or of obscure origins (perhaps orphaned…) and come from a disreputable background… surviving by his wits, which often means living by begging, theft, deception…” (21-39). Many of these traits, present is so many Trickster figures, have developed into genres of tricksters. Such...
Words: 269 - Pages: 2
...must tell a story that illustrates the Truth that they experienced and observed. If they do it extremely well, it becomes a kind of distilled life experience that the reader assimilates and which changes their understanding of life in subtle and important ways. The plot concerns a boy who all but curses his father in a moment of despair by saying, cynically, ''What's the use of stories that aren't even true?'' As a consequence, the father becomes heartbroken, and loses his storytelling mojo. Haroun then embarks on a fantastic adventure to save the enchanted ''Ocean of the Steam of Story'' from villains who would corrupt it. By taking that journey and saving that enchanted place, Haroun restores his father's life and power by giving him the tale of his own adventure, which, when told, rouses a hopeless town to rebel against exploitive, oppressive forces....
Words: 702 - Pages: 3
...In the tale of Anansi Brings Stories to the World, he is a mischievous, cunning, and generally creative as he shapeshifts from a man to an eight-legged spider. In the beginning of the story he tells how he is sitting around watching the people and children become bored and restless and how he likes people being one himself. He’s a clever spider that uses his intelligence and trickiness to capture larger animals for a wooden box that only the sky god will give to him if he captures the Python, a leopard, goat, hornet and a bad-tempered fairy for stories for his people. Although he is portrayed as trickster by doing deeds and capturing the larger animals he puts himself and family at risk to help his people. Making him loyal to his people and...
Words: 326 - Pages: 2
...Fictional stories have been part of the human civilization since the beginning of time. Fictional stories play a huge role in many different cultures; it is a practice that goes back the human history. Ever since childhood we have been told stories through story books, picture, books, music, even the bible. Most of the time the characters, in story books, take the form of animals or inanimate objects. These stories are meant to entertain, influence, teach or even scare us. As children, these stories used to fascinate us and adults used it as a way to discourage us from deviant behaviors. When I was younger one of the folklore that used to be popular in my home country (Ghana) was “Anansesem” it simply means “spider tales”. It was a set of stories or fables about a trickster spider called Kwaku Ananse. Even though he is a spider, he appears like a man. In most of the stories, he tries to trick people for his own gain but his plans always backfires, mainly due to his own conceit, and when they do, he turns back into a spider and scurries up into the corner of a wall in shame. The adults usually told us these ananse stories to discourage us from doing stealing or lying etc. The stories were also a good way for us to socialize. All the kids in the area would come and sit around the adult telling the story; food will be made and passed around. After the stories, we will just be quiet in amazement or in fear, and then we will all run home because we don’t want Kwaku Anase to catch us...
Words: 678 - Pages: 3
...For this essay we were asked to pick two creation myths from two different cultures and discuss/compare and contrast them. For this I chose Out of the Blue and The Creation in the Americas. Out of the Blue is a myth from the Iroquois tribe. In this myth a women is instructed by her father to marry a stranger. This stranger is a magician/sorcerer. This magician put the women through a series of tests to see if she was fit enough to be his wife and she passed and he wed her. On this man’s property there was a tree that the women loved to sit under and converse with her father’s spirit and other spirits. The man falls ill and there is nothing that is working or that his doctors can do to make him better. He is advised to uproot the tree and trick the women into falling into the hole where the tree once stood. Once she fell in he was to put the tree back. All this because he felt she was more powerful than he. When the women fell into this hole she forgot her life up until that point. This new world was very different for her. None of the beings were like her. She dreamed for a time and when she came to she remembered her life before. In this new world the woman has a daughter. The woman’s daughter later has offspring of her own (Leonard, S., & McClure, M. (2004). Myth and Knowing. : McGraw-Hill). The Creation in the Americas is a Mayan myth. In this myth, in the beginning there is only the sky and the sea. There is nothing else. There were beings with green...
Words: 1012 - Pages: 5
...Cosmic Creation Myths Across Cultures Jessica McTavish HUM 105 January 21, 2013 Roxanne Russell Cosmic Creation Myths Across Cultures Myths are everywhere and so it seems there are many different cultures have their own beliefs of how they were created. There is a significant amount of importance of how certain cultures worlds were created and what they need to continue to believe so that nothing changes with the cycles of how they live. The creators of the myths that are with the different cultures have Gods that they praise and believe in so that they have what they need and if they would not worship the creators there would be problems the people would have to face. Inca Creation Pachacamac was the brightest creator that the Incans worship and follow. Pachacamac is the sun and he was the brightest in the sky that no one could see anything else. The night skies were very dark so he created the stars, plants and the moon, which the moon was Pachamama and she became his wife. Pachacamac and Pachamama created a son and daughter which were created out of pity to help the people. The son helped teach the people how to plow and plant the fields and how to build houses. The daughter taught the women the art of weaving and how to prepare food. The children spoke highly of Pachacamac and the rules, along with be fair and kind to one another and to not forget their creator. With everything they were taught all Inca cities were divided into northern and southern halves, representing...
Words: 807 - Pages: 4
