Have you ever played a trick on anyone?
What did you do. How did the person react?
Has anyone ever played a trick on you?
Tell about it.
Are there any characters in movies or T.V.
shows you’ve seen that resemble the tricksters in the tales in this
program?
Which characters in the stories did you
like the best the trickster? Or the character being tricked?
Coyote is famous for being a trickster
but in "Coyote and Cicada" as well as "Coyote
and Turtle" he’s the one who ends up being fooled. Why do you
think that is?
In many African stories featuring Anansi
the Spider, Anansi ends up much like Coyote, being on the receiving end
of his own trick. "Anansi & The Talking Drum" is an
example of that. But in "All Stories Are Anansi’s" he
is definitely the one in control. Why is he able to successfully trick
so many of the other animals? Also, why is a spider character said to be
the keeper of the stories? Does it have to do with Spiders ability to
weave? How is a story like a piece of weaving? How is a good story like
a spider’s web?
Jack is famous for tricking Giants,
stealing from them, and even killing them. Do you ever feel sorry for
the giants? Why or why not? What does Jack have in common with other
tricksters?
There are many stories in many different
cultures where some superior being visits earth to see if there are any
decent people left. If you happened to meet one of the Chinese immortals
on the street or even St. Peter, Elijah the Prophet or one of the many
other immortals who wander around from time to time in human form, would
you pass the test? Or would you be like one of the usual characters who
displays his or her greediness? What is greed anyway? Have you ever felt
that someone else was greedy or stingy? What about you? Have you ever
wanted to be rich? What would you do with 1 million dollars? What would
you do if a stranger gave you 100 dollars and said you had to in turn
give it to someone else? How would you feel?
Quite a few stories explain why things
came to be a certain way. Can you make up your own story to explain
where cell phones came from? How it came to be that a "driveway"
is where you park your car and a "parkway" is where you
drive? Why stop signs are the shape they are? Why buildings have
windows? Why kids wear baggy pants? Why we hardly ever have winter
anymore? Why evergreen trees stay green all year? Why skunks have
stripes and a repelling odor? How the _____________, got it’s
_______________________. (Since we are dealing with tricksters, a good
explanation is that some one played a trick)...
One common theme in trickster tales is
the smaller or weaker creature overcoming and getting the best of the
stronger one by using his or her wits. Can you think of any modern
cartoon characters that continue this tradition?