Anansi's Master Cat: Puss In Boots

Words: 518
Pages: 3

In the trickster tale, “Master Cat: Puss in Boots,” the trickster completes his task for selfish reasons. Cat goes through the trouble of tricking the king and ogre so that Master Cat can move up in social class. Cat constantly thinks about himself throughout the short story, and that is what motivates him to accomplish his goal. Cat is a selfish trickster when the text reads, “the cat continued presenting the king with game of one kind or another (Perrault 48). Master Cat does not think twice about harming several animals, simply so the cat can get what he wants. No consideration for others is pondered, when cat works up a plan. The readers know Master Cat tricks for selfish reasons because at the end it reads, “ The cat became a great lord …show more content…
In “How Stories Came to Earth” the spider works hard tricking creatures throughout the tale so that he can receive the stories from the sky-god, and most importantly share them with all creatures on Earth. At the end of the story when Anansi brings the stories back home the text reads, “he and his wife eagerly learned each one of them” (Kaleki 42). Anansi immediately shares the stories with his beloved wife, who assists him through the course of the story. The quote proves that Anansi does not trick for selfish reasons. The last lines of the text also show how Anansi shares the stories with the entire Earth. When the text reads, “And you can still see today that Aku and Aso tell their stories,” the readers see that Anansi and Aso are generous in sharing the stories. In “Coyote Steals Fire,” the coyote’s work benefits all creatures when he obtains the fire and distributes it to different tribes on the earth. The following quote demonstrates how Coyote uses trickery to aid others, “and they hurried all over the world, bringing fire to every tribe on earth” (Erdoes and Ortiz 45). Coyote works very hard to give the world fire. Coyote and spider’s motivations are much different from the cat’s motivation. Anansi and Coyote’s tricks have great advantages for their societies, rather than