You can't Trick a Trickster

Tricksters are cross cultural characters whose existence has served a common purpose since the dawn of time thus illustrated from the Book of Genesis to pop culture of today, whose roles are ensured in perpetuity. They are very slippery, and elusive mythological characters that cannot be characterized or isolated to one distinctive attribute. As their name suggests, Tricksters love to play tricks not only on the gods, but also on humans. Though Tricksters are often associated as “playful pranksters” they are not always jovial characters. The Trickster “…possesses a funny, absurd, iconoclastic sort of playfulness, yet the Trickster’s playfulness can carry with it serious, even tragic or transcendent, overtones” (Leonard and McClure 250). Though seemingly insignificant, Tricksters are often the catalysts for great change and a diversion from tragic circumstances. To categorize a Trickster would be “dangerous… tricksters are too quick to undercut our mental constructs, to cross boundaries, to belie the categories in which we try to cage them. In terms of this mythic figure, it is far better to be aware of his numerous roles, functions, characteristics, and then to question how these ambiguous characteristics convey meaning” (Leonard and McClure 253).

The Many Faces of a Trickster

Tricksters wear many masks in order to conceal their true identity, which “embodies so many, often contradictory qualities”. Some of these qualities are so diverse, and range from being as “carefree as a child” to being an “obscene lecher” (Leonard and McClure 250). Some of the ten fundamental aspects of the Trickster include; creator, culture-bringer, opportunist, mischief- maker, amorous adventurer, hunger-driven manipulator , credulous victim of others’ tricks, lazy work avoider, transgressor, and clown of the body

The Moral of the Story…

Do not ever put your trust into a Trickster! If anything learn from the Trickster’s blunders and transgressions. “The moral of the story often seems to be: laugh at but do not imitate the Trickster’s foolishness” (Leonard and McClure 252).
Tricksters may induce laughter, but also serve as conduits of illustrating the negative implications of what happens when an individual contravenes social structures and the natural order in which the world operates. Thus, the notion of “what goes around comes around” is personified through the Trickster’s dastardly and wayward ways.

Works Cited

Leonard, Scott, and Michael McClure. Myth and Knowing an Introduction to World Mythology. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004. Print.