The Trickster And The Talking Bulb Analysis

The Trickster Tale Trickster and the Talking Bulb is a Native American folklore. Native Americans would tell these tales orally to the children in their tribe. The trickster tales weren’t read from a book, they were told by and brought down from generation to generation. This particular tale is from The Winnebago Trickster Cycle. According to the passage on page 35 of the Norton Anthropology American Literature Beginnings to 1865, Winnebago is a term that comes from Algonquian people. Trickster tales are very common among the Winnebago cultures and well known by many Native Americans. Paul Radin did not originally hear these tales, but worked with a Winnebago man and a consultant named Sam Blowsnake. They worked together and translated the tales into writings in the

The tale begins with the Trickster hearing someone or something say “He who chews me will defecate; he will defecate!” (Radin36). He heard this multiple times and decided to look into it because it was a strange thing for someone to say. He immediately tells himself that he won’t defecate if he eats it. The Trickster went on to find that the source of the voice was a bulb. This bewildered the Trickster and before the bulb could say another word, Trickster grabbed the bulb and ate it. The Trickster thought he proved the bulb wrong and started coming up with excuses for the symptoms he was experiencing. As he goes on, the symptoms get worse until he can no longer stop defecating. The trickster ends up falling in a pile of his waste and cannot see so he goes around to trees and asks them to guide him to water. He cleans himself up and at the end of the tale it is said that he would have died if he didn’t find water. Native American Trickster tales are told to children of the tribes orally and have morals and lessons within the tales to help teach its listeners how to behave and right from