What´s a Trickster

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A trickster is an animal or possibly human character who is a master of clever deceit, physical harm, or magic, used in ways to get what he or she desires. A trickster often fools other or is the one, who is fooled, and the character is often a humorous one, but these tales are told to portray negative characteristics or to illustrate how worldly things have come to be. This trickster character has showed up in spoken word and literature all across the globe but some of the well-known tricksters today have come from West Africa, such as Anansi the Spider. Others have come from Native American tribes, such as Iktomi the Spider from the native Lakota tribe of Minnesota. Each of these tricksters displays the archetypal characteristics of this character and have distinct differences but are very similar.

Anansi-
Anansi is the West African trickster who has clever and brilliant lie and speeches that no mortals would recognize what they are doing what Anansi want. He is known as spider but he is more likely a sneaky man with four arms and legs. He has humble attitude when he trick someone but very greedy of trying to take all of stories from Sky God and fooled his family to get best corp by himself. Anansi accomplish his mission or his goal but failed when he get stuck by fake gum-man because of his short temper in the story of “Anansi Plays are Dead”. Anansi is a clever trickster but has no patience, short temper, and greedy character.

Iktomi-
Iktomi is the Native American version of a clever being, known as a trickster. Iktomi, the half spider and half human, has almost all the characteristics of a trickster. Just like Anansi, Iktomi is known for his clever tricks and strategies. In Iktomi first tale, he tricks ducks for dinner....

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...tever trick these spiders perform it is for their own gain but they do teach valuable lessons for life and set the same example to learn from even if they are from different cultures.

Conclusion-
Iktomi and Anansi have distinct differences but they are major differences. Both characters have different appearances and attitude towards thing, but they are similar by their characteristics. Iktomi and Anansi have the cleverness and selfish manner of them. They also have a lying-deceitful characteristic that can be fooled. When it comes to their characteristics of a trickster and what they represent they are the same. Their enormous ego is what brings them together. Both think they are better than all the other animals. Iktomi and Anansi are unique in their own ways, which brings variety of trickster in the world. Iktomi and Anansi happen to be similar tricksters.

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