Summary Of The Short Story 'How Stories Came To Earth'

The idea of a werewolf is well known to many people – classically, a normal human who turns into a ravenous beast when the conditions are right – and authors have written multitudinous stories on the subject. One such story – The Lay of the Were Wolf by Marie de France – is an early depiction of the monster. Also familiar is the tale of Little Red Riding Hood – the story of a little girl and her encounters with a crafty wolf is timeless. The girl and the monster were juxtaposed – quite literally at one point – by Angela Carter in two of her short stories titled The Werewolf and The Company of Wolves. These three stories and their representations of monsters provide insight on their authors’ definition of humanity.

A trickster embodies the energies of mischief and desire for change. This character provides the comic relief necessary to ease dramatic tension that builds up in the story. They cut egos down to size and poke fun at absurd or stagnant situations. They also show all or most types of elements. The characters Anansi in “How stories came to Earth,” Coyote in “Coyote steals fire,” and the cat in “Master Cat” all show the use of most or all elements of tricksters. All of the elements are ‘’uses of anthropomorphism,” “cleverness of the trickster ,” “helpfulness of the trickster,” “humorous/ clownish elements of the tales,” “brain over brawn,” negative qualities of the trickster, and the interaction with gods, spirits and the supernatural. The three elements that will be included in the following essay is the use of brain over brawn, the interaction with gods, spirits and the supernatural, and the negative qualities of a trickster.

Some of his most well-known transformations are those of the “flea, fly, giantess, salmon, seal, and bird” (McLeish, par. 2). He uses these transformations for various reasons, such as “to benefit others”, “to trick them”, and “to save his own butt” (McLeish, par. 2).

“The Truth About Stories is that that’s all we are”.(King 2003,p. 2).Stories have a great importance as they make people more joyous and creative. Stories let the narrator to speak but he is not really the one who is speaking. The narrator retells the stories in merely same language but totally in different tone. These stories improve ones belief towards life. The narrator interacts with the listener through

The trickster archetype is used in stories of various cultures from European to North American. With each story the trickster varies depending on the norms of the society the story originated from. In most trickster stories, the trickster and cultural hero are combined. The trickster can take any shape and is almost limitless in its abilities. They often go around the ordinary actions to prove a point or reach there goal. There are many different characteristics to the trickster archetype, they can be magical or break ordinary limits effortlessly, illogical, cleaver even in foolish manner, and have benign intentions, just to name a few however there are many more. In the Koasati trickster tale “The Bungling Host” has some of the more common traits such as causing unintentional harm, foolish, posses magic, and more common in NAtive American stories, the characters have definite shapes as animals. The less common ones this story possess is a creation story and death of the trickster. The Koasati Rabbit fits the trickster archetype because he is foolish, breaks the rules of nature, and the story involves silliness.

As he is later cooking the ducks he killed, he wanders from his fire and gets stuck. At that point some wolves come near and Iktomi foolishly tells the wolves not to eat his meal, which they of course do. In the Trickster Winnebago Trickster Cycle the coyote transforms himself into a woman by creating a vulva and breasts from elk parts. In this part of the story Trickster is making himself look like a pretty woman so that he can be taken care of by a man.

However, Stevenson uses the graphic novel form to subvert these stereotypes of hero, villain, and monster through Nimona’s cute character design and visual comedy. As Mihaela Precup notes, Nimona’s round figure, boisterousness, and “deceptive smallness” make her an endearing character, and the reader identifies with and supports her despite her supposed monstrousness (Precup, 7). By depicting Nimona as a funny, cute character, Stevenson not only subverts the hero/villain binary in the novel but also the process of labeling others based on appearances, an

In the story “Master Cat,” he wore clothing, talked, and walked on his two back legs. Next both tricksters achieved

However, as with original ideas that are based on previous ideas, Nanapush demonstrates many un-trickster-like characteristics, most notably the ones that make him seem more human, specifically his fear and his love. For the first, fear, while the trickster character occasionally feels afraid of his situation, he does not actually fear other beings. In fact, one of the markers of the trickster is his sometimes foolish fearlessness. The trickster character does not fear repercussions of his actions—as evidenced by his constant return to them; he does not fear the power of others—as evidenced by his willingness to tackle problems much larger than his ability; and he does not fear what others would call sacred—as evidenced by Coyote’s desecration of the dead buffalo. Nanapush, on the other hand, fears Fleur and her power. His fear is more than pure terror, though; it is the fear that is mixed with respect, a respect that the trickster character gives to no one. For the second characteristic, love, the trickster character loves no one but himself. Although Coyote has a wife and children, he manipulates and uses them, but he

Similarly, in “Coyote Steals Fire”, the anthropomorphism is how Coyote is able to trick the spirit, Thunder in releasing fire into the world. Coyote makes a bet with Thunder while playing dice. If Thunder wins he gets to kill Coyote, but if Coyote wins Thunder has to release all the fire he possesses. What coyote does, however, is very smart. He waits until Thunder is enraged, so Thunder would be distracted and not pay attention to Coyote manipulating the dice in order to have the most points.

The African story Anansi and the Japanese anime Naruto Shippuden both feature a trickster who is also a culture hero. In both of these works, the trickster is a prominent figure whom the people adore and fear. The depiction of the tricksters in each work tells the audience crucial important about how they show trickster qualities to mask their weakness and obtain self-satisfaction. In the Anansi story, Anansi uses verbal tricks and empty promises to deceive people, while in Naruto Shippuden, Orochimaru uses clever disguises and rebels against conventional behavior and beliefs. Despite the tricksters in both works being a master of deception, they are both deceived by someone close to them. Both the modern and ancient work also show how the

Firstly, the two short trickster tales have quite a lot of things in common. To start off, both of the tricksters was in an animal form. In “How Stories Came to Earth” the trickster was a spider with the face

A hero, in its simplest form, is an individual who displays valor in the face of adversity, and sacrifices his or her own personal interests to promote the greater good of others. Although Monkey exhibits the former very often throughout “The Monkey’s Story”, he is severely lacking in the latter. He constantly emphasizes his self-importance and his undeniable superiority over both his lowly monkey subjects and the divine beings of Heaven, including the Jade Emperor. If the first definition provided for “hero” is the only one to be considered, Monkey most definitely does embody the archetype of the hero, but with the second included, he no longer does so. Another important idea to establish is that Monkey,

Imagine a spider smart enough to catch a python, leopard, hornets, and a fairy. This is what occurs in the trickster tail “How Stories Came To Earth”. In “How Stories Came To Earth” and “Master cat” both tricksters are clever and achieved a goal. In both these stories there are many similarities and differences.

The story revolves around carnival midget “Tom Little” who is doted by the public and carnival folk homogeneous. Albeit he is a prosperous circus star, his all consuming desire to be as tall and imposing as the carnival chief, eventually comes to fruition, but not without rigorous consequences!It all commences with the revelation of a set of antediluvian books containing the secret of switching bodies. With this cognizance, Tom can determinately trade his diminutive frame for the tall, more sizably voluminous than life frame of the lion tamer carnival chief. As he switches bodies, his triumphant glee is anon superseded by abject terror as he realizes he is caged with forty savage felines!