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The Trickster As An Enlightened Individual

In storytelling, the trickster is normally thought of as a mischievous and impulsive

character, who tricks others characters within the story to get that which he so desperately

craves. Often times this is food or water. Due to his impulse-based nature and actions, he is often

portrayed as an “uncivilized” and “selfish” character who looks out only for himself at the

expense of the well-being of the society in which he lives, and as a result gets out-witted by

some of the other, more “intelligent” and “heroic” characters who must “save” the society.

However, in reality, the hedonistic side of the trickster is only a small part of the complete nature

of the trickster. He is far more convoluted than society would have you or I believe. The

trickster, in reality, is actually the part of the human nature or psyche that has resisted the

traditional and cultural evolution of society over time. His only guides in his life are reasoning

and logic. He uses these fundamental guides to challenge the rigid structures of society because

he see no reason in partaking in this fake, hypocritical, and fictional traditions, which stem the

free flow of logic. In this paper, I will set about righting the incorrect notion of the trickster as a

clown who is simple-minded and ignorant. I will briefly explain how this misconception arose

before showing why the trickster is significantly more enlightened than portrayed in most

stories, and explain how his intelligence is actually beneficial to society.

Through the trickster we learn much regarding the morals and values of a society such as

what is considered acceptable behavior, and the traditions and conventions which are held dear

and sacred among the community members of that society. The trickster “represents not only the

undifferentiated and distant past, but the undifferentiated present within every individual.” (163

Radin) He is undifferentiated from the prejudices and influences of society, whereas the

conventional hero is already differentiated in regards to his morality and civility. Thus, the

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trickster is a conduit for every possibility to occur within the context of his behavior. The

trickster provides a link to our more un-evolved and primordial past, when humans were less

“cultured" and "civilized” in their thoughts and actions. There exists a reservoir of primitive

motifs present within the psyche of all human beings, which exists independent of any

differentiation obtained from interaction with society. In general, this reservoir gets drowned out

by differentiation, which produces the individual unconscious. Carl Jung discussed this reservoir

of motifs, which he called the collective unconscious, in his book “The Archetype and The

Collective Unconscious.” He describes the collective unconscious, as “a part of the psyche” that

“does not ... owe it’s existence to personal experiences and is not a personal acquisition” (42).

These motifs are fundamental themes. One of them is the trickster motif, according to Jung

himself. The trickster is a basic part of the human psyche. He is crucial to our ability to navigate

through life because he provides a mechanism to counter and dogmatic traditions that entail a

loss of free will and individuality. The trickster wants to get rid of the way people have been

influenced to behave according to the dictates of the powers of the world, whether this be a

religious or capitalistic power. They are given the illusion of living meaningful and fulfilling

lives. However, the trickster realizes that only by living for yourself, free from the prejudices of

society, can one even feasibly have a chance of leading a fulfilling and meaningful life.

With the trickster, the conventional notions of “normal” are constantly being challenged.

What is normal is relative to the society within which those notions of normative are being

discussed. Thus, what the trickster finds unnecessary and decides to satirize through his actions

will vary from society to society and culture to culture. For example, within the sphere of the

“modern” world today, although there seemingly exists a hetero-normative culture today within

society, “sexuality exists on a continuum” (Dinitia). As such, trying to dictate strict and rigid

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structures regarding sexuality will inevitably create an altercation when a “queer” or “other”

person begins questioning the validity of such “norms,” which in reality are just tendencies and

have no real place being labeled the “right” way. That which is uncommon or other has been

treated cruelly throughout history. A relevant example is how, in the 1600’s, Galileo Galilei was

subjected to cruel treatment because he went against what the church taught even though he had

evidence for his theory as opposed to the church and their “theory.” “The ideas we have in our

head about what constitutes male-ness, female-ness, and what constitutes “normal” are all

socially constructed,” (Wolters) yet treated as undeniable truths and inherent realities by society.

In challenging these social constructs, the trickster has helped to show society that it need not

follow the path set out by a previous generation but may instead choose a path that it desires for

itself.

The intriguing question regarding the trickster and his actions is why does the trickster

behave in the manner in which he does? Why does he poke fun at society and all it’s silly

conventions? The answer to these questions lie in the notion that tricksters are forced to contend

with rules and norms of a society with which they had nothing to do. Paul Radin discussed this

point perfectly in his book “The Trickster,” in which he theoretically analyzed some trickster

myths from North America. He wrote “is this a speculum mentis (Latin for “mirror of the mind”)

wherein is depicted man’s struggle, with himself and with a world into which he had been thrust

without his volition or consent?” (x) Why should anyone have to deal with the stipulations and

mandates of a previous culture, the creation and development of which that person had nothing

to do. As Thomas Jefferson once said “I am increasingly persuaded that the earth belongs

exclusively to the living and that one generation has no more right to bind another to it's laws

and judgments than one independent nation has the right to command another.” Tricksters feel

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exactly in this manner regarding this topic and proceed to act out against these vivid

constrictions by defying them. In doing so, the division of morality is more clearly defined by

society. Thus, although the trickster wants to renew society and return it to a fundamental reality,

the trickster actually achieves the opposite; he strengthens the traditions and conventions within

society. However, by consistently acting in his ways, the trickster will constantly create

opportunities for a renewal. In doing so, he passes on his trickster ways and thinking to at least a

few members of society who themselves have strong energies. This is crucial because this allows

the trickster to be ever present within society. This enriches society because the trickster is a

constant source of renewal.

Throughout history, storytellers have used the trickster to define the region of actions which

constitute acceptable decorum. Due to this, tricksters have come to be viewed in bad light, as

they tend to be viewed in situations in which they are frowned upon. This viewpoint is brilliantly

discussed in Babcock-Abrahams essay “A Tolerated Margin of Mess: The Trickster and His

Tales Reconsidered,” in which she discusses the nature of the trickster within the context of

some Native American trickster tales. In this essay, she contends “all too often, ‘marginality’ ...

has connoted being outside in a solely negative sense, being dangerous to or somehow below

‘normal’ boundaries” (149). However, as pointed out earlier, the trickster contains an infinite

variety of options and interpretations because of his cultural undifferentiation, which means his

outlook is not tarnished by the prejudices of society. This association of the trickster with

negative connotations of the word “other” is due to a skewed perception by society. This skewed

interpretation took place within the context of social interactions, in which the individual is not

sought out for his individuality, but for his agreement with the general consensus. In his book

“The Undiscovered Self,” Carl Jung discusses the effects of group psychology on the individual.

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Jung states that “if the individual is not truly regenerated in spirit, society cannot be either, for

society is the sum total of individuals.” (40) The loss of diversity is a hindrance to the overall

quest for enlightenment of society and the human race because it slows down the process of

questioning and debating what we think we know to figure out whether that is the inherent truth

of nature. We are coaxed into accepting the view of the masses in terms of how we act in our

daily lives because all human beings feel a need to affiliate with one another. In addition to that,

we feel that we should not have different opinions from one another because that is somehow

bad. In reality, this difference of opinions is good because it encourages us to debate these issues

and come up with the definitive answer (or as close as possible since some questions may not

have black and white answers). Only by adhering to the trickster part of the psyche will a human

being become free from the hypocrisies of society. This is because the trickster constantly

challenges these traditional norms within society.

This division of morality and code of interaction between right and wrong, or trickster and

hero was put in place by the powers that be from many generations ago. They “sought to fortify

their already acquired status by subjecting society at large to their conditions of appropriation.”

(Marx) They want to keep the status quo as is, since it benefits them the most. “Law, morality,

religion, are to him so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many

bourgeois interests.” (Marx) In attempting to maintain the social strata, the ruling class

inevitably sets in motion the questioning of this rigid framework by the trickster. This is because

the trickster questions anything which he deems to have no inherent need in life. The trickster

does not want the dictatorship of society and society does not want the trickster in their

dictatorship. Though this dislike exists, the trickster is constantly trying to return society to it’s

basest aspect. Of particular relevance to this discussion is the essay “The Destructive Character”

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by Benjamin Walters. In it he discusses several idiosyncrasies of the destructive character a.k.a.

the trickster. “What exists he (the trickster) reduces to rubble - not for the sake of rubble, but for

that of the way leading through it.” (Revista Punkto) In reducing the world to it’s simplest, we

see what is significant. The trickster attempts to reduce society and it’s complexities to the

fundamental realities because he has no want or need for the unnecessary hypocrisies. Without

making society see life as it should be without all the prejudices and conventions, the trickster

cannot enjoy this life because everyone around him is caught in the current pattern of life. Thus,

the trickster himself gets caught in it by association. To enjoy his simplified world, he must

remove society from it’s own world.

The trickster can be thought of as an individual who does not want to follow the established

norms of society. He will always question the relevance of such traditions, because it is his way

due to this undifferentiation with respect to the conventions and traditions of society. Geoffrey

Bradshaw discusses a similar anti-establishment style with the band “The Grateful Dead” in his

thesis “Collective Expressions and Negotiated Structures: The Grateful Dead in American

Culture.” In reality, the anti-establishment tone was quite ubiquitous in the rock and roll scene in

the 60’s and 70’s, and so The Grateful Dead are no exception in that sense, but they are an

interesting case because of some details which will be delineated below regarding their fans,

a.k.a. the Deadheads. The trickster unequivocally rejects one of the “dominant models of the

modern worldview” (Bradshaw 365) similar to the way the Deadheads rejected the general way

of life to seek out enlightenment. The Deadheads followed the band around and abandoned the

regular life consisting of a 9-5 job, a nice house in the suburbs and two or three children, a.k.a.

The American Dream, because it wasn’t as fulfilling as the life they could lead with the Grateful

Dead on tour. “Power is manifested ... through the iron cage of bureaucratic administration.”

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(Bradshaw 380) As evidenced with the Deadheads and their rejection of the current lifestyle in

the “modern” world, a materialistic life leaves a hole within them that no amount of money can

fill. The trickster is more enlightened from his undifferentiation, and realizes that the best life is

is to live in a simple manner, with few tools and close to nature. He has realized that there is

beauty in simplicity, and chooses to seek out this beauty and also consequently to not submit to

the conventions of society.

The inherently true ideas beyond the hypocrisies of society will eventually emerge in a free

discourse. This is assuming, of course, all sides involved are using logic in their arguments and

adhering fully to logic’s beautiful and simple principles. In “Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing

and Cultural Anxiety,” Marjorie Garber discusses the contribution of transvestites (who are

tricksters because they defy classification within the conventional gender stereotypes within

“modern” society) and their actions to society today. This is relevant to this paper because

sexuality is one of the most well-known ways that a trickster can use to create chaos within a the

“modern” society as it is one of the most dogmatically ingrained conventions within the

“modern” society, and thus most susceptible to the challenges of the tradition hating trickster.

Garber discusses how the manners "by which heterosexuality had encoded and recognized itself

have become detached from a referent with which those signs are thereby revealed to have had a

conventional rather than a natural connection" (147). Through the years, the norms of society

have been accepted as the one true convention, whether it be heterosexuality, religion, or even

capitalism. The true meaning of queering or “trickstering” is the “calling into question the

possibility of ground.” (150) Inherently in nature, however, there exists no reason for these

“norms” to be held up as the one, true convention, deviation from which should result in

mockery and even physical abuse.

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The critique of society by the trickster is much more intellectual than most oral narratives

would lead you to believe. Tricksters generally have reasons for the way they act. They choose

to abandon the structural norms that they are placed within, without their consent. These norms

represent a way for society to deal with the fact that no matter how “advanced” and “civilized”

they get, they will never really escape their “primitive” and “animalistic” qualities, which are a

part of them just like the trickster. The trickster has learnt to deal with this and accept his

“primitive” side. He harnesses it’s undifferentiated qualities to enrich himself in the fight against

the cage that is “modern” society. As pointed out in Radin’s book, “outwardly people are more

or less civilized but inwardly they are still primitives.” (208) Humans like to think they are

civilized, but take a glance at the world today. The trickster chooses not to be differentiated

because he sees through the facade of society’s vain norms and rigid entrapments, whose

creation he had no say in whatsoever. This is due to the fact that by accepting and understanding

the whole aspect of himself, the trickster is able to see more clearly through the hypocrisies of

society, and subsequently chooses to act in a way to ridicule these ludicrous “ideals.” Society is

thrown into limbo as one (or perhaps more) of the main divisions in it is torn to shreds whenever

the trickster begins to perform one of his enlightening deeds. Although everything returns to

normal, in this temporary state of flux, the trickster performed a duty in reminding society to

embrace the true self, however abnormal it may be. Harold Scheub discusses this in his book

“Story,” in which he talks about storytelling and how the storyteller conveys the meaning of a

story to his audience. Even when order is restored after the momentary descent into anarchy, “we

cannot return to normality completely; we have been changed by ... trickster’s illusions. In the

process, we have seen a part of the world in a fresh way. ” (271) The trickster is the hero we

need, but not the one we deserve. He is the one who attempts to renew society and it’s culture for

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their own benefit, although society will undoubtedly ridicule him for his otherness.

A massive attempt at a cultural renewal was made in the cultural experiments of the sixties

and the seventies. One of the most interesting details during this cultural upheaval lies in the use

of recreational drugs. Of particular importance was lysergic acid diethylamide-25, more

commonly known as LSD or acid. This drug had the benefits of inhibiting serotonin re-uptake.

Serotonin restricts the perception of stimuli to allow for the brain to focus more pertinently on a

matter at hand. As such, ingesting LSD allowed the brain “unrestricted information from both

sensory stimuli and memory.” “Thought patterns were freed from traditional moorings”

(Bradshaw 179). LSD was used to build a community that would use this enlightenment tool for

“questioning mainstream society, and offering an alternative vision of creative anarchy

(Bradshaw 179).” In a similar way, the trickster and his undifferentiated ways are a recreational

drug; a conduit through which enlightenment could be sought. The trickster strives to show the

whole world to constantly question everything. In doing so, enlightenment will eventually be

obtained as the unnecessary and irrelevant, such as traditions, are abandoned. Thus, the trickster

is enlightenment in and of himself. However, he is frequently painted as evil because he

challenges the conventional dogmas that the powers that be use to rule society and keep society

neatly ordered in their place.

Heroes have come to be known as those who can stop these dastardly characters tricksters

from “corrupting” the “nice” world with his evil and hedonistic ways. However, one must

consider whether the trickster is really in the wrong. As mentioned earlier, the norms of society

are relative to the society being discussed. Thus, there are numerous instances of norms and

traditions, the violation of which is not wrong from an absolute sense, but rather a relative sense.

These traditions have been dogmatically upheld and as such, the violation of these norms is

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simply “wrong” from that point of view. Oftentimes, the trickster is just a speculum mentis, who

serves to question the actions of the surrounding area because he had no part in creating those

conventions. The trickster is the mirror of the mind and because of this he can guide us to what

is intrinsically and inherently true in nature. From his undifferentiation, he has enlightenment. A

relevant definition of enlightenment to this discussion is: “science and logic give people more

knowledge and understanding than tradition and religion” (Merriam-Webster). To understand

why, consider the definition of tradition: “a belief ... commonly accepted as historical though not

verifiable.” The person who truly abandons such ludicrous conventions in favor of logic and

reasoning is undoubtedly enlightened, as he has chosen to seek out the fundamental and inherent

truths of reality as opposed to accepting things told to him at face value. The hero on the other

hand is simply serving a “higher” being, with the thought of “contributing” to the “betterment”

of society. So, we must always ask ourselves one crucial question: Is the hero really the hero and

the trickster really the trickster?

The trickster character absolutely does not want to be accepted. He cares not whether the

rest of society likes him, or hates him. Rather, he wants to simplify the world to the basic truths.

“Such an Apollonian version of the destroyer imposes itself once one recognizes how

prodigiously the world is simplified when it is tested with a view to its destruction.” (Revista

Punkto) There exists a very simple world, which has been made complicated due to the exploits

of the “modern” Western world. The trickster wants to break this illusion of the hectic and

complicated Western life being fulfilling and meaningful; propaganda of the Western world, such

as the American Dream, influenced people to behave according to the dictates of the powers of

the world and simultaneously gave them the illusion of leading significant lives. The trickster

attempts to project his undifferentiation onto the other members of society because he realizes

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that to enjoy the deepest harmony of a world free from dogmatic prejudices, he must first pass

on his enlightenment to everyone else. Failure to successfully do this means society will forever

be trapped in it’s own hypocrisies, which will irk the trickster continuously. This is the reason

why the trickster acts the way he does.

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Works Cited

Babcock-Abrahams, Barbara. A Tolerated Margin of Mess: The Trickster and His Tales

Reconsidered. Indiana: Indiana University Press. 1975. Print.

Bradshaw, Geoffrey W. Collective Expressions and Negotiated Structures: The Grateful

Dead in American Culture. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Madison. 1997.

Print.

Garber, Marjorie. Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety. New York:

Routledge. 1992. Print.

Jung Carl. The Archetype and the Collective Unconscious. New Jersey: Princeton University

Press. 1980. Print.

Jung, Carl. The Undiscovered Self. New York: New American Library. 2006. Print.

Marx, Karl. Engels, Frederick. Manifesto of The Communist Party. 1969. PDF file.

Merriam-Webster. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. Sep. 11 2014.

Radin, Paul. The Trickster. New York: Philosophical Library, Inc. 1956. Print

Revista Punkto. Punkto Magazine. Web. Sep. 18 2014.

<http://www.revistapunkto.com/2011/12/destructive-character-walter-benjamin.html>.

Scheub, Harold. Story. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. 1998. Print.

Smith, Dinitia. Queer Theory is Entering the Mainstream. The New York Times. Jan. 17 1998.

Web. Sep. 17 2014.