Bryan Hankerson
Professor Vogtman
American Literature
23 September 2012
Essay 1 In the Winnebago Tales, the Trickster played a big role in how the story panned out. He was a slick and smart individual who disguised himself to run away from his own problems. He lied and used the people that were closest to him to get what he wanted in life which was food to survive. In the book it described what he used to disguise himself as a woman so that the Chief’s son would accept him. “Trickster now took an elk’s liver and made a vulva from it. Then he took some elk’s kidneys and made breasts from them” (p.106). Shortly after that he had intercourse with a fox, bird, and nit to make him pregnant and had three boys. From having little, the Trickster always found a way to use the animals around her to get what she wanted, which was a big sign of her slick ways .All of this made the Chief’s son very happy and excited and the Trickster was able to become a part of a family and eat and live comfortably. When the last child was born he had been very needy and wanted a piece of white cloud, blue sky, blue-green leaves, and lastly roasting ears. The Trickster made a horrible decision when she dropped something rotten in the steaming corn which revealed herself to all the men. Once this happened she did what she did best and ran from her problems but on the run she thought of her son who had grown old to a man. She visited and him and decided to leave for good. “Here I am just giving myself a lot of trouble” (p.108). With that quote you can see how the Trickster never had a stable life and every time something didn’t go right she left in search of a new life. The figure of the Trickster is such a culturally important one because it shows how magically a books character can be. Here in the book the Trickster did so many things any regular human couldn’t ever do. Transforming into a woman and having intercourse with animals isn’t real in a sense but in these tales it is. For the culture the Trickster is a very funny individual who clearly knew what he was doing. Throughout the story he made horrible mistakes and used the people that he liked to get personal goods and pleasure. The tree spoke truth into his life in the end which really taught the Trickster that what he was doing was wrong. With the figure of the Trickster you can find so many other modern-day representations like him, for example Cat Woman from the series of Batman movies is a great conniving character. She has a very different relationship with Bruce Wayne and Batman who are the same people and she seems to always end up hurting Batman with her slick ways. When she isn’t around Batman she is finding ways to scheme and use her body to steal money and jewelry from men that will easily fall for her. Her and the Trickster would go together well because they both find ways to get over on people without them knowing. The trickster and Cat woman use their bodies to get men to fall for them and in the end show them love. With the love and affection they seem to think the men
