How Stories Came To Earth, And Master Cat Or Puss In Boots

Humankind rose to the top of the animal kingdom throughout history because of superior intelligence. The ability to overcome a stronger foe with cunning and intelligence is often reflected in our culture. One popular form of cleverness in stories is trickery. Trickery is the ability to deceive someone, which often requires the trickster to be clever. Trickster tales often correlate with each other because common literary elements are shared. “How Stories Came to Earth” by Kaleki, “Coyote Steals Fire” by Alfonso Ortiz, and “Master Cat or Puss in Boots” by Charles Perrault are all cultural trickster tales that have similar literary elements. “Coyote Steals Fire”, “How Stories Came to Earth”, and “Master Cat, or Puss in Boots” all share anthropomorphism

as a main literary element, “Coyote Steals Fire” and “How Stories Came to Earth” describe the origin of an everyday item belonging to one character, and the trickster brings positive change to society by bringing the everyday item to the world, while “Master Cat, or Puss in Boots” the protagonists takes advantage of a system and a small inheritance for selfish gains and their actions has no positive benefit to society.
In the story “How Stories Came to Earth”, the anthropomorphic qualities of the characters drive the plot of the story. Anansi, the spider protagonist shows the human quality of curiosity. “The spider wanted [stories] so that he could know the beginning and endings of things”(Kaleki 40). His curiosity is what drives him to earn the stories from the sky-god, and to complete the quest sky-god gives him to earn the stories. The quest is to capture the most feared animals of the land, including the python, the leopard, hornets, and fairies. Anansi knows that he can not capture these animals with conventional tactics, so show the human trait of cleverness when he capture the animals. Anansi is able to capture them by tricking them with traps or tricks. His tricks consist of outsmarting his foe and using his superior intelligence, similar to how humans became the most powerful species on Earth. Anansi’s traps also consist of human qualities required to be built. “[He] dug a very deep pit. He covered it over with branches of the trees”(Kaleki 41). His ability to create a tool or trap to accomplish a task is a human quality that makes humans different from animals. The anthropomorphic qualities of Anansi are what drives the plot of the story, and they help the protagonist overcome the challenges he faces.
In “Coyote Steals Fire” coyote uses humanlike qualities to outsmart and overcome his foe. Coyote makes it his duty to give fire to the rest of the world. He has to overcome Thunder in order to get to the fire. Thunder is feared by all animals for his overwhelming power, but “Coyote was not afraid of Thunder. He was afraid of nothing”(Ortiz 45). Coyote’s human quality of bravery is what lets him face Thunder without hesitation. Coyote knows that Thunder is stronger than him so he uses his cleverness and trickery to get fire. Coyote must win a game of dice to get the fire, so he cheats to win instead. “Now, Coyote is the trickiest fellow alive. He is the master at cheating at all kind of games”(Ortiz 45). An animal is usually incapable of comprehending a game or cheating, but Coyote has the anthropomorphic qualities that let him win. Coyote’s victory over Thunder is accredited to his humanlike present in the story.
“Master Cat, or Puss in Boots” main character, the cat, is a cat that holds human qualities and a humanlike role in the story.

One of the cat’s most apparent and visible traits is that he wears wears boots like humans. The cat shows an ability to construct and make social relations, which lets him lead to the success of his master by taking advantage of certain people such as the king to make Marquis de Carabas become nobility. The cat also displays an element of cleverness in his trickery. The cat’s attempt to steal the ogre’s castle is successful because of his cleverness. The cat knows the ogre will not accept a request to transform to a small susceptible mouse, so he first request the ogre to become something powerful and large. “[He] was so terrified at seeing a lion before him that he instantly scurried up to the gutters on the roof”(Perrault 50). This display of fear shows the ogre that the cat is not curious and not looking for the ogre’s weakness, so when the cat requests for him to be a mouse, he accepts to becomes a mouse. Then the cat eats him and steals the castle. The cleverness to trick the ogre is a quality of anthropomorphism that helps the cat steal the castle. The purpose of the cat actions is out of greed and self preservation.“[The] cat became a great lord and never again had to run after mice”(Perrault 50). The cat’s greed is a human quality, and the purpose out of the his actions are only to live a better life for him, and he does not show sympathy

for those he affects. The cat in “Master Cat, or Puss in Boots” possesses anthropomorphic qualities that let him hold a humanlike role in the story.
The purpose for the stories “How Stories Came to Earth” and “Coyote Steals Fire” are to create an explanation on the origin of everyday things that once belonged to only one being. The sky-god in “How Stories Came to Earth” owns all stories in a wooden chest. He is unwilling to give them up, unless one who seeks the stories finishes a quest. “The sky-god kept all stories to himself, up high in the sky, and locked away in a wooden box”(Kaleki 40). Anansi finishes the quest, and he shares the stories with the world. The story effectively describes where stories came from. The Sky-god’s stories are similar to Thunder’s possession of all fire in “Coyote Steals Fire”. Thunder holds all fire, and no one else in the world can have it because “fire was kept in a huge white rock that belonged to Thunder”(Ortiz 44). Coyote makes it his personal quest to take fire from Thunder and share it with the world. At the end of the story, coyote is successful and fire is spread to all the tribes of the world. Both stories share a common theme of one being holding the entirety of an everyday item, and the travail of the protagonist is to take the item and share it with the world.
In “Master Cat, or Puss in Boots” there is no one item to be taken, instead a system to take advantage of for personal gain. The moral of the story is that a small inheritance to a industrious person makes more gains. The cat steals only to make a personal gain. In the beginning, Marquis de Carabas has only the cat and himself. The cat tells that master “You’ll see that you really don’t have that bad a deal”(Perrault 46). The cat’s industrious attitude leads him to take advantage of the social system around him. His manipulation of the king, stealing from others, and constructing of a fake social status leads to a prosperous life for the cat. The story is based up taking advantage of a system and making the most of a small inheritance, rather than describing the origin of something.
“Coyote Steals Fire” and “How Stories Came to Earth” have protagonists with heroic or justified actions that benefit the society around them. Anansi makes it his personal quest to learn the stories from the sky-god. He tricks the animals that sky-god assigns him to capture, but he does not do it without a justifiable cause. Anansi uses unfair tactics against them, but he does not do permanent harm, and he is doing it for the greater good of society. When Anansi receives the stories “Everywhere you look, [he] spins [his] webs for all to see”(Kaleki 42). The stories are shared with the rest of the world, leading to an overall positive benefit to the society. In “Coyote Steals Fire” the Coyote goes against Thunder, who puts fear in others and holds all the fire for himself. Coyote plays him in a game, but Coyote cheats to win the fire for the people. Coyote is cheating and plays the game unfairly, but he does it so the world can have fire and “Every animal took a little piece… bringing fire to every tribe on Earth”(Ortiz 45). His liberation of the fire leads to a positive change to the Earth. Both stories’ protagonist use unfair actions, but they are justified by bringing positive change to the society around them.
In “Master Cat, or Puss in Boots”, the cat uses trickery and foul play.

The cat threatens peasants by telling them “each one of you will be cut into little pieces until you look like chopped meat”(Perrault 49) unless they comply with is terms. The cat steals a castle from an ogre by making the ogre shape-shift into a mouse and eating the mouse. By stealing and eventually taking advantage of the stolen goods, he is able to make a prosperous life for him and his master. He and his master are the sole beneficiaries to the crimes the cat commits. Unlike the other stories, the only gains made were selfish. The actions are much less justifiable because he stole with no benefit to

society.
Trickster tales hold a common themes and literary elements. The three stories given are common because the stories were created with similar character, but they differ because of cultural context and the morals to be told. “Coyote Steals Fire”, “How Stories Came to Earth”, and “Master Cat, or Puss in Boots” all have protagonist who use their anthropomorphic qualities to overcome their circumstances, “Coyote Steals Fire” and “How Stories Came to Earth” describe the origin of an everyday item that is taken from one being and given to the world by the protagonist, while “Master Cat, or Puss in Boots” the cat and his master use a social system to benefit themselves, bringing no positive benefit to society. The overall connection to the stories is the common circumstances the protagonists are put in and using trickery to overcome them.