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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 its 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 1600s, 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 its 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 mans 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 its
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 its simplest, we
see what is significant. The trickster attempts to reduce society and its 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 its 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 60s and 70s, 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 wasnt 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 logics 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 its undifferentiated qualities to enrich himself in the fight against
the cage that is modern society. As pointed out in Radins 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 societys 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 ... tricksters 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 its 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 its 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.

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