Trickster Extent In Children's Stories

The antagonists of a story are usually not the ones critically acclaimed. Due to our human inclination it’s fairly relevant that, as readers, more of an emotional attachment is built with the protagonists. However, in spite of that, villains still deserve our attention. From taking a close look at a few villains and the methods in which they manipulate, parallels in strategy are prevalent. A few examples of antagonists that particularly stand out are: Iago from the tragedy Othello written by William Shakespeare, Roger Chillingworth from the novel The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Abigail Williams from Arthur Miller’s novel The Crucible, these characters all use isolation to manipulate others throughout the stories.

The Cat in the Hat many different theories can be used. Lawrence Kohlberg’s examines the development of moral reasoning and moral judgement. Although, the cat in the hat does not really have a moral to the story it does teach children what they can and cannot do in real life. It also teaches children what is right and wrong and whether they should lie to their mother or not. The children in the story can relate to this when the mother comes back after being out and asking if they had fun but they do not know what to say or do. With the story the children show moral development through the three main levels of Kohlberg’s theory when answering the different questions their mother asked to them. With the preconvention

When readers read a story written by an author they will usually think that the author likes to read books and is what led the author to writing a book. William Goldman said, “As a child, I had no Interest in reading” (Goldman 3), this can lead readers to imagining the author as a young child rather than an adult not wanting to read a book. When Readers imagine the author as a young child the image imagined can give a better sense of how the author felt as a young child. The imagination of a child giving the reader a picture to think about is less complex than that of a adult giving a reader a picture to think about.

The other side may say kids can make an impact too and their size or age doesn’t matter, but this book is set in the 1800’s adults didn’t believe in kids or listen to them very much especially when Tom is known to be a troublemaker. So, if Tom went to the police they would tell him to go home and explain the seriousness of making up false claims. Then, because Tom told the police the whole village would gossip about how Tom is such a troublemaker and how he wants Injun Joe in trouble. When Injun Joe hears the news he will go after Tom next, since he is a vengeful man and Tom tried to get him

At first glance, the character Scheherazade in 1001 Arabian Nights does not fit in what many would see as the classic trickster archetype. The ordinary person’s description of the trickster is most likely one that many would describe as being male, up to no good, and perhaps even foolish. However Lewis Hyde discussion of the trickster motif in his novel, Trickster Makes This World, adds insight to the trickster character and much of his characterization is something that can readily be applied to Scheherazade. Scheherazade is a trickster as she is not only a boundary crosser but also a truth-teller through her oxymoronic use of lies and deception.

though Jack does not want to be seen as a child, but as a figure of

In the short story, “Gorilla, My Love”, author Toni Cade Bambara narrates a story about the way children overanalyze little white lies. Bambara tells the story as if a child was talking in first-person view. Throughout the story Hazel talks about different instances of her share of what she thought was being lied to. The read was very enjoyable because it was something that I could relate to. For instance, when Hazel and her friend are at the movie theater and she says, “ …we yell some more and some kids slip under the rope and run up and down the aisle just to show it take more than some dusty ole velvet rope to tie us down.” (Bambara 450) As I child I thought I could anything I wanted and have no repercussions to pay,

Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman in their article “why kids lie” (p80). States that parents often fail to address early childhood lying, since the lying is almost innocent. Their child’s too young to know what lies are, or that lying’s wrong. When the child gets older and learns that lies are bad, parents believe that lying will stop. A child who is going to lie must recognize the truth, intellectually conceive of an alternate reality, and be able to convincingly sell that new reality to someone else. When children first begin to lying, they lie to avoid punishment, and because of that they lie indiscriminately. One short example is, if there are two kids in room and one of them broke a television the more intelligent will call their mom to tell that he wasn’t the responsible that was his brother. By the time a child reaches school age, her reasons for lying

This ability of reasoning leads adolescent to be rebellious, because they can understand that adult’s rules are not necessarily legitimate all the time. For instance, “A 14-years- old becomes acutely aware of the difference between what adults say they do and how they really act.” Billy showed this kind of cognitive ability, and he was rebellious towards his father Billy Ray and especially to Norm. He said to Norman “don’t tell me what to do”. Adolescents develop a hostile perception about adults. They become critical about their parents and the community they live in as a whole.

Many trickster tales follow a similar outline and contain similar elements. In the three trickster tales, ¨How Stories Came to Earth¨, ¨Coyote Steals Fire¨, and ¨Master Cat, or Puss in Boots¨, it contains the trickster tale elements of the helpfulness of the trickster, the cleverness of the trickster, and the use of anthropomorphism. There are several instances in each of the three stories in which the trickster in each of them are helpful in some way. In “How Stories Came to Earth”, Anansi got the stories from the sky god to give to the world around him. This is very helpful because those who inhabited the world now have the stories to carry on through the generations and through scripture as well.

When people think of the word trickster, they think of a mischievous child who plays pranks on the elderly from stories like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Although this fits some aspects of a trickster, there are many other tricksters in literature. A trickster in a story can be many different things and have many different characteristics as there are no true trickster architypes. A trickster does not have any moral standing, as a trickster is neither good nor bad, and doesn’t use them to justify their actions. A trickster is someone that messes the line between play and order in a clever way in order to achieve their own personal goals.

The power feeds the trickster to be the hero all at the same time. Also the tricks that are for power can come out in a bad way like in the movie The Iliad they have tricks on the war of when to go to war and when to fight and

Although many view children's fiction as suitable only to children, and an embarrassingly immature pursuit for a serious person, children' stories mold the way we think. They allows us to look at very complex and difficult issues in a safe and playful way, and they give us the freedom to imagine the unimaginable.

Children Need Both Sides of the Story It is important to have both sides of the story in children’s stories that have a bad guy. With both sides presented children can learn that the bad guy isn’t always a bad person, they may have been trying to do something good, and it just turned out bad. Things aren’t always what they seem, and children to need to see different points of view. The person who we perceive as the good guy can change with a simple change in point of view, and sometimes we need to show someone other than the traditional good guy winning in the end.

Typically, children act without reasoning things out in the mature way that adults do (or can do); and they act much more out of immediate desires or passions rather than the rational desires that adults have Oaks (2012).