Friday, October 2, 2015

Essay: Tricksters and Fools of Filipino Tales

I chose to focus on the tricksters and fools for my essay. In the first story I read the Buñgisñgis was a trickster and a fool. He fooled the animals into cooking him dinner and making them feel threatened by his presence. However, the monkey in the story was also a trickster because he escaped from the Buñgisñgis a few times using his wit. The dog and the Carabao were the fools in the story, which resulted in death or being harmed. I thought this story was unique because the enemy received punishment as well.
The three brothers of fortune had a different twist. The trickster was harder to define but I would say it would have been the grandmother for allowing the boys to have different charms. By using their charms they were able to get what they wanted in life. This including trying to gain a wife. In a way Suan was also a trickster to his brothers because he was able to use the two halves of the girl to bring her back to life for himself. The boys showed selfish behavior about the girl and were possessive.  
In The Clever Husband and Wife the husband was the trickster. He believed he could fool the doctor to give him more money. Later his wife tried her own tricks as well to gain more money. In this story the doctor was the fool. He was so taken with the joke they continued to play that he kept them even when he found out about the mockery.

I did not find a specific pattern to a trickster and fool in the Filipino popular tales. Other than that there was usually more than one trickster and that they usually received pay back from the fool. In some stories the trickster and the fool appeared as the same character.  


I thought this MEME explained the fools. Picture Source

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