A trickster is an animal or possibly human character who is a master of clever deceit, physical harm, or magic, used in ways to get what he or she desires. A trickster often fools other or is the one, who is fooled, and the character is often a humorous one, but these tales are told to portray negative characteristics or to illustrate how worldly things have come to be. This trickster character has showed up in spoken word and literature all across the globe but some of the well-known tricksters today have come from West Africa, such as Anansi the Spider. Others have come from Native American tribes, such as Iktomi the Spider from the native Lakota tribe of Minnesota. Each of these tricksters displays the archetypal characteristics of this character and have distinct differences but are very similar.
Anansi-
Anansi is the West African trickster who has clever and brilliant lie and speeches that no mortals would recognize what they are doing what Anansi want. He is known as spider but he is more likely a sneaky man with four arms and legs. He has humble attitude when he trick someone but very greedy of trying to take all of stories from Sky God and fooled his family to get best corp by himself. Anansi accomplish his mission or his goal but failed when he get stuck by fake gum-man because of his short temper in the story of “Anansi Plays are Dead”. Anansi is a clever trickster but has no patience, short temper, and greedy character.
Iktomi-
Iktomi is the Native American version of a clever being, known as a trickster. Iktomi, the half spider and half human, has almost all the characteristics of a trickster. Just like Anansi, Iktomi is known for his clever tricks and strategies. In Iktomi first tale, he tricks ducks for dinner....
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...tever trick these spiders perform it is for their own gain but they do teach valuable lessons for life and set the same example to learn from even if they are from different cultures.
Conclusion-
Iktomi and Anansi have distinct differences but they are major differences. Both characters have different appearances and attitude towards thing, but they are similar by their characteristics. Iktomi and Anansi have the cleverness and selfish manner of them. They also have a lying-deceitful characteristic that can be fooled. When it comes to their characteristics of a trickster and what they represent they are the same. Their enormous ego is what brings them together. Both think they are better than all the other animals. Iktomi and Anansi are unique in their own ways, which brings variety of trickster in the world. Iktomi and Anansi happen to be similar tricksters.
This story is about a hungry spider that wanted to eat at all the feasts in different villages. For the spider to be able to do this he left ropes at each village and when there is a feast, the villagers are instructed to pull the rope. The unexpected thing that the spider did not know was going to happen was that every village food was ready at the same time, and the spider had the rope tied around his waist. Due to the villages food ready at the same time the spider was pulled in all directions and was not able to eat any of the food. The novel’s purpose of this fable is to tell a story of why do spiders have small waist, but it is also supposed to show the both Ishmael and the audience that live is unpredictable even when things are
... son, erratic and subhuman, a trickster sometimes associated with the underworld as a spirit or god.
Characters are always changing, in speech, thoughts, actions, and looks, overall changing themselves in a variety of ways. In the story, Code Talker, by Joseph Bruchac, the protagonist, Kii Yazhi(Ned Begay) changes mentally and physically through the story in many different ways from the beginning to the end. His mindset and opinions on many important things in his life change majorly as he develops himself as a person. Ned’s mentality on his heritage develops in a positive manner through the different major events that occur in his life as he goes through his own unique adventure.
Mermaids, Fairies, and Witches are some of the most prominent mythical characters in today’s entertainment. These creatures are common characters in Folklore from various countries around the world. Folklore from other countries and cultures often affects how authors portray these creatures in the movies, books, and TV shows that are familiar to the citizens of America. One such country is Scotland, which is filled with multitudes of different folk stories. Scottish Folklore in particular has many tales about these three well known creatures. The most commonly known folklore from Scotland has had a huge impact on some of the most well known entertainment in the United States today.
"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" includes many aspects, which may be described as magical. In the story, an old man with a very poor set of wings is found and kept as a pet for several years. These wings were described by the doctor in the story as "...so natural on that completely human organism that he couldn't understand why other men didn't have them, too" (528). The fact that the old man had wings in the first place seems very acceptable to the characters, and this nonchalance is conveyed to the reader. Marquez also adds to the story the tale of the lady spider. The lady spider has the body of a tarantula and the head of a young girl. She was transformed to this state after sneaking out of her parents home to attend a dance. Witches, wizards, and spells are not used to transform her, simply lightning. The lady spider takes away the old man's mobs of spectators leaving him more ordinary in that he is still around even after his fifteen minutes of fame are over.
Witchcraft is said to be the most widespread cultural phenomenon in existence today and throughout history. Even those who shun the ideas of witchcraft cannot discount the similarities in stories from all corners of the globe. Witchcraft and its ideas have spread across racial, religious, and language barriers from Asia to Africa to America. Primitive people from different areas in the world have shockingly similar accounts of witchcraft occurrences. In most cases the strange parallels cannot be explained and one is only left to assume that the tales hold some truth. Anthropologists say that many common elements about witchcraft are shared by different cultures in the world. Among these common elements are the physical characteristics and the activities of supposed witches. I will go on to highlight some of the witch characteristic parallels found in printed accounts from different parts of the world and their comparisons to some famous fairytales.
As a preface for the tragedy, the crime committed by Tantalus should be staged first. The killing of Pelops by Tantalus, his father, serving him to the gods will be the beginning of Niobe’s tragedy. After these events, Niobe becomes unusually fixated with being a mother. After having 12 children, seven daughters and 7 sons, she swears to the gods that she’ll never hurt her children as her father attempted with his own; and that she wants to dedicate her life to become the best mother to exist ever. Niobe is having a recurrent dream with a spider, which is in fact weaving a net around her; she goes to the Oracle to find out the significance of the dream. As a response, the Oracle tells her that the spider represents her obsession with her children, whom are not part of the gods’ realm and hence should be subjects of adoration. The spider really represents Arachnae and her fate after challenging Athena. Niobe doesn’t understand the Oracle and feels that even the gods are jealous of her fortune. During a celebration in Leto’s honor, she claimed that she deserved more worship than Leto as she was the daughter of a god, a queen as had seven times more offspring than Leto. She even dismissed the celebration; the worshippers leave.
Kind and selfish, deep and shallow, male and female, and foolish and wise aren’t always words that are associated with each other, quite the opposite in fact. However, when it comes to the trickster tales of Native Americans, each word is associated with the other and describes more or less the same person or animal. To Native American people a trickster affects the world for an infinite number of reasons, including instruction and enjoyment. A trickster, like the name implies, is a cunning deception. A trickster can be a hero. However, at the same time he could introduce death. How is that heroic? Why would a group of people want to remember a person that brings punishments such as death? The function the trickster tales have/ had on Native American communities is still powerful today quite possibly because of their context, the lessons they reap, and the concerns they address. As the tales are told, the stories unravel showing the importance of a trickster and the eye-opening experiences they bring.
Even thought there is not a commonly agreed single definition for a trickster, Hydes and Hynes find common ground in saying that a trickster is someone who deceits, tricks , takes advantage of situations and certainly-among other things, disobeys normal rules. A trickster breaks the rules more often maliciously, as Loki for example; however, at the end usually the tricks end up having positive effects. Hynes mentions six characteristics most often found in the trickster. Even though not all of them are always present, in the film “Identity Thief” (2013) Diana (Melissa McCarthy) shows a few of these traits explained by Hynes.
The tarantella has a very interesting history. Its name derives from a little southern town of Italy called Taranto. It was believed that if a spider called the tarantula bit the townspeople, the only way to survive its bite was to do a dance called the Tarantella. The locals believed this was the only cure. If the people bitten did not dance they would suffer severe pain, muscle spasms, vomiting; most eventually died.
Arachnida is a subphylum of Arthropoda, consisting of over 100 000 species, many of them being parasites which can carry disease. They are found in all environments, and mostly have eight legs, which is a feature, together with the fact that they do not have wings or antennae, often used to distinguish them from the other subphyla, though there are exceptions. They include spiders, scorpions, ticks and mites. Their bodies are divided up into three parts: the cephalothorax, the opisthosoma and the thorax, and use a type of lung for gas exchange. Most Arachnids are carnivorous, and eat pre-digested insects and other small animals. They reproduce using internal reproduction usually lay eggs, except for the scorpion which bears living young. The word ‘Arachnid’ comes from the Greek word ‘Arachne’ meaning ‘spider’.
Sly, a drunk beggar, he immediately plots a practical joke to play on him. The
...hich is which and who is who", we see the Wicked Witch of the West looking at the dead feet of the Wicked Witch of the East.
a very intelligent man, likely to play elaborate pranks. The narrator returns to dinner at his
Witchcraft has been a part of many cultures for hundreds of years all around the world. Witchcraft is defined as being the manipulation of substances and or words that are powerful using magic to cause either harm or good depending on the person intent. Witchcraft is usually an unconscious activity, dues to this the “witch” is not often aware that he or she is bewitching someone (McGarry 2016: 15). There are six main characteristics to witchcraft that make it easier to identify it within different cultures. The characteristics are that there are a few exceptions; witches are mostly seen as evil beings, secondly, witches have particular traits, for example reversals of behaviour, witchcraft is typically genetic condition, as it is usually used