The Trickster Paul Radin

In the battle between good versus evil, good normally comes out on top. When it comes to trickster that divide is very unclear. In different myth, religions, and cultures, trickster are perceived to be the sign of evil. By examining different books and articles, the audience can see that trickster are not just viewed as the villain, but in some cases they can be the hero as well.

The word trickster refers to a dishonest, cunning, even deceptive person or thing. The form of a trickster tend to change based on a certain religion, culture, or myth, it can be an animal or a person. In The Trickster Paul Radin defines trickster as “at one and the same time creator and destroyer, giver and negator, he who dupes others and who is always duped himself.

He wills nothing consciously. At all times he is constrained to behave as he does from impulses over which he has no control. He knows neither good nor evil yet he is responsible for both. He possesses no values, moral or social, is at the mercy of his passions and appetites, yet through his actions all values come into being” (Radin xxiii). Lewis Hyde agrees with Paul Radin in his book, Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art, and gives his definition of a trickster as “a boundary-crosser/ the creative idiot, therefore, the wise fool/ the mythic embodiment of ambiguity and ambivalence, doubleness and duplicity, contradiction and paradox” (Hydes 7). From all these definition readers are prone to believe that trickster are evil.

The trickster most commonly found in religion, most specifically Christianity and the Bible, is the devil. The parable about Adam, Eve, the serpent, and the fall of man is common knowledge for people even outside of the faith. The belief behind the story is that the devil, who was represented by a serpent, tricked Eve into eating forbidden fruit that would cause catastrophe and chaos for all the years to come. In Genesis chapter 3, verses 1-5, the serpent is questioning Eve and the instructions that she was given from God. In verse 1, the Bible describes him as a “beast” who was, “more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.” (King James Version, Genesis 3:1) The serpent’s role and main purpose in this story was to distract Eve and to make her eat of the fruit that he knew would cause disruption to God’s word and the world He created.
In congruence to what Radin’s definition of a trickster is, the serpent is a “creator and destroyer, giver and negator, he who dupes others and who is always duped himself”.

He created the idea in Eve’s mind that she was of course able to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but he also knew of the curse of the world that it would herald; hence being a creator and destroyer. He gave Eve security in her decision even when he knew of the consequences. As seen throughout the Bible in many other parables, the devil, who comes in many different form and elements, shows no regard for the people he effects. His main purpose, as stated in John 10:10, is to “…steal, and to kill, and to destroy…” (King James Version, John 10:10). Now in some cases, Eve can be perceived to be a trickster because of the way she had to influence Adam to eat for the Forbidden Tree of Knowledge. Knowing God’s would be displeased with her, she disobeyed him once again getting Adam to partake in the indulging of the apple. This showed people that even the Eve cared and loved Adam trickster can come in the form of friends, family, even

spouses.

While the devil is the most referred to trickster in the Bible, there are also others.

Delilah, lover of Samson, is a well-known tale about a woman of greed who tricks her lover into a behavior that grants her money. In the book of Judges, chapters 13-16, the Bible explains this as a love story gone wrong. The Philistine used Samson’s love for a beautiful, Delilah, to trick him into exposing his “true” weakness. Delilah, technically the philistines, wanted to know what Samson’s secret to his strength was. The Lord told Samson to never tell what made him so strong. The temptress, Delilah, played as an uncover spy taking back whatever Samson said would make him weak to the ruler of the Philistines. Delilah’s main purpose in this was to lie and deceive Samson, two main conation directly related to the definition of trickster. She nagged and nagged saying, “How can you say, ‘I love you’, when you won’t confide in me?” (King James Version, Judges 16:15) Knowing the consequences and the repercussions of his action Samson shared his knowledge with her, “No razor has ever been used on my head, because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.” (King James Version, Judges 16:17) That night Delilah waited till Samson fell asleep and shaved his head, causing God to leave him. For his disobeying God Samson was caught and his eyes were gauge out, Delilah was never to be

seen again. The trickster came cause chaos and left the story untouched, leaving a blind weak Samson behind and locked up in captivity. When a Christian thinks of a trickster these two examples are normally what comes to mind. Not saying the Bible does not have any more tricks or tricksters these are the most infamous accounts.