9/3/2023 0 Comments Trickster character![]() (p.54 Euba)Įsu, both symbolically and through ridicule shows the farmers their error. He turns the hat inside out and shows them that it is red. After they have fought for a while Esu returns and shows them that they are both wrongs about the hat. The farmers then proceed to argue about the color of the hat that Esu is wearing. One day Esu put on a hat that is black on one side and white on the other. In one story two farmers who live next to each other decide to make a pact that they will never argue with each other again since they are such good friends. Esu is also great at exposing man’s follies. Esu is a great satirist and is always blamed when life plays a trick on the African people. In Africa, the Trickster we encounter goes by the name of Esu. Stories about him also provide comic relief and make him one of the Greek’s favorite Gods. He is seen as guiding people in transition. Icons of Hermes were displayed in front of houses and where roads intersect. In Greek culture, Hermes is seen as a patron of facilitating roles as opposed to commanding roles (p.48 Hynes and Doty). Hermes is said to have wings on either side of his head. Also with Hermes, we see the recurring theme of flight. Hermes is the only God in Greek mythology that is born to a nymph (a mortal). Once again we see a sort of bridge between the average man and the gods. The Trickster of Greek mythology was a God by the name of Hermes. The long fall from the cliff to the ground. Wile would come up with some elaborate schemes, but in the end, the result was always the same. The creators of him were interested in the comedic value they saw in Native American stories and adapted him into a cartoon. The Looney Toons character was always after the Road Runner. ( p.87 Hynes and Doty)ĭoes this character sound familiar? Millions of kids grew up with this very same character, but we knew him as Wile Coyote. The coyote always has an elaborate scheme for flight, like hitching a ride with a buzzard, but the end is always the same. Through meditation, the Shaman is said to be able to fly. ![]() The coyote is always looking for a shortcut. The Shaman looks to the supernatural for his strength while the coyote relies on his own wits. The Trickster can be seen as a parody of the Shaman, or the spiritual leader of the tribe. Perhaps these stories are meant to teach Native Americans not to aspire to be anything more than human. No matter how hard he tries he cannot escape the human condition. He is always attempting to fly (which is the sign of a god to the Native Americans) with disastrous consequences. He is earthbound, like man, but is constantly trying to transcend this fate. In Native American stories, he takes the form of the coyote. The Trickster shares many attributes with man. And he will pull off elaborate schemes to teach a moral lesson or expose the folly of men. He provides comic relief to a religious myth. In religious stories, his role is very diverse. The trickster seems to be a comedy of opposites.įor every good aspect of his persona, there is an equal and opposite aspect. The malicious practical joker is deceived by just about anybody the inventor of ingenious stratagems is presented as an idiot the master of magical power is sometimes powerless to extricate himself from quandaries.” (p.67 Hynes and Doty). ![]() “ Admired, Loved, venerated for his merits and virtues, he is represented as thievish, deceitful, parricidal, incestuous, and cannibalistic. The best way to view a trickster is by his personality. His physical form seems to be particular to each religion. So who is this Trickster? He has many forms both human and animal. This suggests that the Trickster is within all of us just sitting on the borderline of conscious and unconscious thought. In his research on schizophrenia, he found the qualities of the trickster surfacing in the disorder (p.54 Euba). Evidence to support such a claim was found by psychologist John Laynard. Jung would say he is a manifestation of our own collective unconscious. Each trickster is unique to its own culture, but all tricksters are bound by certain characteristics no matter what religion they show up in.Īnthropologists would argue that each trickster should be evaluated in its own cultural setting, but in order to see their archetypal value, they must be and can be evaluated as a group. The “Trickster” is an archetype that surfaces in many cultural and religious stories. Studying it reminds us that all humans are bound together by a common source. Yet it is not visible to the naked eye, one must look for the signs of it by researching cultures who are long gone and comparing them to each other and our own. That thread of consciousness connects all human beings and cultures around the world. Carl Jung’s explanation for the archetypes that surface in cultural and religious literature is that they are the product of what he calls the collective unconsciousness.
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