We have to be a little tricky, to guard against being tricked. The victims of people such as con men and snake oil salesmen, are those who are unconscious of trickster – they have been tricked by their own naivety, greed or self-deception. Perhaps here is a first lesson to be learned from the trickster: whatever we do, he is always one step ahead of us. While we endeavour to trace the trickster to his origin, he continues to play his tricks on us, always evasive, always crossing our conceptual boundaries of definition in which we try to confine him. Tricksters are always “on the road”, they are the lords of in-between. “he best way to describe trickster is to say simply that the boundary is where he will be found – sometimes drawing the line, sometimes crossing it, sometimes erasing or moving it, but always there, the god of the threshold in all its forms.” The story offers an explanation of two natural phenomena.Tricksters are the breakers of rules, agents of mischief, masters of deceit, and boundary crossers. The Shivering Tree is a modern retelling of a trickster tale that reflects the oral tradition of Aboriginal mythology.During or after your reading, open a word document title it 3.4 The Trickster Archetype, copy and paste the questions below and then answer them. Read "The Shivering Tree" by John McLeod. "I Shall Take These Stones"~Acrylic on Canvasġ. Contemporary versions of the Trickster stories better reflect the complexity and humour of the original storytellers.Īrtist: Ron Stacy, Summerland,B.C. Early translators of First Nations' myths and legends tended to modify the stories to resemble European fairy tales, with a linear plot and a moral. There are many compilations of First Nations' myths and legends that feature the Trickster. One example of an archetype is The Trickster. Given the number of contemporary First Nations authors who employ the Trickster in their works, it appears that the Trickster has returned and is roaming the Canadian landscape once again. But it is also said that Nana'b'oozoo would return when the people were ready to welcome him again. Among the Ojibway, it is said that Nana'b'oozoo paddled away from his people in a canoe, accompanied only by his grandmother, upset that his people had rejected him for the ways of the newcomers. There are those who say that the Trickster left the First Nations when the Europeans arrived. Listeners learn as much through the Trickster's mistakes as through its virtues. Like all humans, the Trickster is imperfect: it is capable of violence, deception and cruelty. The Trickster is a remarkably self-important individual. Listeners are invited to draw their own conclusions about traditions and proper behaviour from the Trickster's exploits. It is unpredictable - one minute a hero, the next a foolish clown.Ībove all, the Trickster is a teacher. The Trickster regularly displays contradictory behaviour such as charm and cunning, honesty and deception, kindness and mean tricks. The Trickster is an amusing character whose enormous curiosity frequently leads to trouble. Generally, the Trickster is a half-human and half-spirit figure who roams from one adventure to another, assuming the form of animals or humans of either gender. The Trickster is known as Coyote, Hare, Crow, Badger or Old Man among other First Nations in North America. It is called different names in different First Nations' cultures - Raven by the people of the West Coast, Wee-sak-ee-chak by the Cree, Nana'b'oozoo by the Ojibway of the Eastern Woodlands, Kluskap by the Mi'kmaq. The Trickster can be either male or female. One of the central figures in First Nations' mythologies is a character often referred to as the "Trickster". They told stories about their ancestors, about every aspect of the land around them and about the magnificent beings who were part of their mythology. Traditionally, stories and legends brought people together to pass on their history to the next generation, to entertain each other, and to teach their children. Storytelling has always been a communal activity for First Nations. Recognizing archetypal patterns in literature brings patterns we all unconsciously respond to in similar ways to a conscious level. He recognized that there were universal patterns in all stories and mythologies regardless of culture or historical period and hypothesized that part of the human mind contained a collective unconscious shared by all members of the human species, a sort of universal, primal memory. Think critically, creatively, and reflectively to explore ideas within, between,Ĭarl Jung first applied the term archetype to literature.Recognize and appreciate the role of story, narrative, and oral tradition in expressingįirst Peoples perspectives, values, beliefs, and points of view.Learning Target (Curricular Competencies):
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