Matt Dembicki's Trickster: Moral Codes Reflected

In what follows, S.P. shares her thoughts on Matt Dembicki's Trickster: Native American Tales a Graphic Collection.


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Reading the collection of stories in  Trickster: Native American Tales a Graphic Collection reminds me of the stories I heard repetitively as a child. These interesting stories, simple as they  are, would nevertheless have educative meanings implied by them. This phenomenon is not restricted to the American Indian cultures but is universal through distinct cultures, since I grew up listening to these stories in China, as well. My personal favorite story is about a shepherd boy. He always lies to the people in the nearby village, that the wolves are coming to attack his sheep, and then makes fun of those who rush there to help him. After several times, people lose faith in the boy and would not be fooled by him again. In the end, when the wolves indeed come to attack the shepherd boy’s sheep and the boy truly calls for help, nobody would come, because everyone thinks it is nothing but a malicious joke. As I grow up, this story echoes in my mind, and always reminds me to be an honest person and never intentionally fool people around.

In this way, the stories can convey to the readers how to be a decent person, and what kinds of manners are not accepted by the community. Similarly, the trickster stories I read in this collection, which are mainly designed for children, are meant to be not only entertaining, but also educating. Besides talking about the origin of the nature and why things appear to be the ways they are now, a large number of those stories address how people should conduct their behaviors. The moral codes reflected in the narratives will warn the young kids what is wrong, and guide them to be a virtuous person. For instances, when they read through the fascinating narratives, the children are told to stay alert of their enemies, and to be respectful. These moralities embedded in the stories reflect the values of the community, and the rights and wrongs in people’s minds.

In “Azban and the Crayfish”, the hungry raccoon pretends to be killed by accident, so that the little crayfish can boast in front of his companion and make everyone relax their concerns toward the raccoon. As the raccoon has planned, all the crayfish exhaust themselves celebrating the death of their enemy, and thus, in the end, the raccoon is eventually able to hunt a large number of crayfish as they are resting after the party. In this story, the raccoon is a very smart trickster, who correctly understands that the little crayfish is boastful, and the crayfish community is too credulous. However, after I read this story and laughed at amusing plot, I seriously started to think about the ideas lays behind the story—— you can never underestimate your enemy. First of all, when the crayfish starts to brag about the death of the raccoon, he has already fallen in to the trap of the raccoon. As the crayfish and convinces himself that the raccoon is dead of accident, he is ignoring of the wisdom and the potential threats of his enemy, the “mighty warrior” (Dembicki 40).

Also, in order to satisfy his own proud feelings, the crayfish brags about the power he does not have, and spread the news of the raccoon’s death without careful confirmation. The crayfish is blinded by his own desire of fame, and completely overlooks the power of the raccoon: the strong warrior cannot be killed that easily, and if he is still alive, he will probably come back and cause great casualties in the crayfish community. However, this tragedy is not caused by the silliness of a single crayfish. The entire crayfish village is so credulous that they believe in something that is not likely to happen easily. Although the chief of the village doubts the death of the raccoon and tries to assure the case, not many things are done to thoroughly examine the raccoon’s body.

Without entirely ruling out the danger, the entire village relaxes its concern toward the raccoon, and starts partying right away to celebrate its victory. Thus, the mindlessness of the crayfish themselves, give the raccoon the opportunity to eat such many crayfish easily. As concluded at the end of the story, “perhaps all of those who survived also taught their children that it is unwise to be too quick to celebrate the misfortunes of their enemies” (Dembicki 46).  Through the appealing plots in this story, the children are warned to be mindful of their enemies all the time and not underestimate the power the enemies under any circumstances, so that the safety of individuals, families and communities would not be harmed.

In addition to stay alert, the Native American culture also tries to teach the children to be respectful, especially to the dead, through stories. In “Trickster and the Great Chief”, while everyone else is mourning for the death of the Great Chief, the trickster figure is jealous of the fine things that would be buried with the Great Chief. The greed of the trickster motivates him to come back later to the burial site of the Great Chief, and steals things “that belonged to the Chief” (Dembicki 49). Then, when the spirit of the Chief caught the trickster stealing, the trickster puts an owl aside the chief’s grave as a guardian, to make up for his mistake and to avoid harsh punishment from the spirit. In this story, it is blamable for the trickster to steal things from others. Being respectful to others’ private properties should be a fundamental moral requirement for all human cultures. However, the trickster, instead of striving for his own fortunes, chooses to steal the fine things belong to others. It does not matter whom he gets those things from, the very action of stealing should be condemned. The trickster disregards the moral codes of the community, as well as the ownership of those properties. Moreover, to make this mistake worse, the trickster is actually trying to steal things that belong to the  dead Chief. The things a dead person is buried with not only express the living people’s mourning for the dead, but also honor the achievement of the dead over his lifetime. The furs, bows, arrows, etc. the trickster tries to get from the burial site, are actually bridges connecting the spiritual underworld and the material reality, so, it is desecrating for the trickster to destroy the spiritual value of those properties, by taking them over. All in all, this story teaches the young kids that they should not only “respect and honor the dead”, but also be respectful to property rights in general (Dembicki 54).

Furthermore, in both stories analyzed above, the educational information is also expressed through the punitive outcomes of the mistakes. In “Azban and the Crayfish,” the whole crayfish village experienced great casualties, because of that little bragging crayfish, as well as the carelessness of the entire community. To demonstrate how essential it is to be aware of the enemies, the narrative gives severe aftermaths for not doing so: a large number of your companions and friends would get killed, and the entire community would suffer from huge loss. Similarly, in “Trickster and the Great Chief”, when the Great Chief’s spirit caught the trickster stealing the belongings of the Chief, he threatened to send the trickster down to the underworld for harsh punishments. In this way, the children would probably be horrified by the scary images of the underworld, and always be remindful not to steal others’ properties, nor to disturb the dead. The young kids, who always take what in the stories seriously, would surely be warned by the terrifying outcomes of those mistakes, and always stay careful in real life to prevent those bad situations from happening.

In conclusion, it is really entertaining reading through those interesting narratives and pictures. In the meantime, the underlying ideas implied by the stories also make me think about what manners are highly valued and what are seriously condemned. These stories, which are designed to educate the young people, clearly reflect the community’s expectations toward a virtuous person. When older people tell the stories to their children through oral narrations, they explain to them the right and wrongs in the community’s opinion. In this way, the values of the community are passed from one generation to another through these educative stories.

S.P.