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Trickster Tales: Stories
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Trickster tales have different functions in various societies. Certainly the stories are told because they are funny and entertaining; but they are ... in some sense sacred. Radin reports that the reaction to trickster stories "is prevailingly one of laughter tempered by awe" (xxiv). Hyde notes that tricksters always function within some sort of "sacred context" (13). But in addition, as John Lame Deer said, tricksters "are sacred [because] we Indians also need their laughter to survive" (quoted in Erdoes and Ortiz xxi). Tricksters need the more serious gods to bounce off from and create their mischief.
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Trickster tales are great favorites in many cultures. They often use an animal, who represents the underdog, that uses skill and cunning to outwit a superior. Black slaves often used trickster tales in their storytelling. They identified with the small but cunning animal that fooled a more powerful bully such as the plantation owner. People around the world find trickster tales both entertaining and amusing and receive satisfaction from knowing that a smaller, and often weaker, creature has bested a larger and more powerful adversary.
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"Trickster tales are a type of folktale in which animals are portrayed with the power of speech and the ability to behave like humans. The dominant characteristic of the trickster is his or her ingenuity, which enables the trickster to defeat bigger and stronger animals. A variant of the trickster tale is the escape story, in which the figure must extricate himself from a seemingly impossible situation.... In African and African American trickster tales, the trickster figure is often a monkey, a hare, a spider, or a tortoise."-- from The Essential Black Literature Guide, by Roger M. Valade III, in Association with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Visible Ink Press, 1996.
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In the North Pacific Coast, Trickster may be a Raven, Mink, or Bluejay. In the Plateau, in the Great Basin, in California, in the the Southwest, and in parts of the western Plains, the Coyote is the trickster par excellence. He is the best known of all North American Indian tricksters. Coyote stories ... abound in the Hispanic culture. Other animals that are used in these stories are the rabbit along with the hare and Wisakedjak (Whiskey Jack). In South America, a fox plays the major role in many of their stories.
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There are two main types of slave trickster tales; animal and human. The human tales were mostly about John, a slave, and Old Master. They may not be actual historical accounts of happenings during slavery, but they certainly reflect a lifestyle and point-of-view of the slaves. In some stories John is able to outwit Old Master, but in others he is tricked. In one story, "Master Disguised," Old Master disguises himself to catch John having a party when he thinks the master has gone to Philadelphia (Roberts 57). In another human trickster tale, "Malitis," the slaves trick their master into thinking that the pigs have died from an illness.
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Trickster stories may be told for amusement as well as on serious or sacred occasions. Depending on the context, either a single tale or a series of interrelated stories might be told. The typical tale recounts a picaresque adventure: the trickster is “going along,” encounters a situation to which he responds with knavery, stupidity, gluttony, or guile (or, most often, some combination of these), and meets a violent or ludicrous end. Often the trickster serves as a transformer and culture hero who creates order out of chaos. He may teach humans the skills of survival, such as how to make fire, procreate, or catch or raise food, usually through negative examples that end with his utter failure to accomplish these tasks. Frequently he is accompanied by a companion who either serves as a stooge or ultimately tricks the trickster.
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