In previous posts, I have discussed the hero and his/her journey in detail. Wikipedia contributors, “Pippin Took,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, (accessed March 9, 2021). Wikipedia contributors, “The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, (accessed December 5, 2017). Wikipedia contributors, “Trickster,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, (accessed December 5, 2017). Distributed by 20th Century Fox Release date (United States) Fair Use. Star Wars movie poster © 1977 Lucasfilm Ltd., via Wikimedia Commons. Hero, villain, mentor, or trickster-knowing what archetype a character embodies helps me identify their potential role within the story. It is one of the foundation books in my reference library, and I refer back to it often, especially in the early stages of a manuscript. I highly recommend The Writer’s Journey, Mythic Structure for Writers, by Christopher Vogler. They will point out areas where I could use this character to better show certain aspects of the action. The trickster sometimes emerges in my work, but I don’t always recognize them until my reading posse gets my manuscript. Thanks to them, the story is not quite so frightening, even when things are really bad. The character who plays the trickster guides us through the darker aspects of a story with their wit and ironic humor. Their influence on the hero also offers us moments of hilarity and pathos. The trickster brings the essence of fallible humanity to a group of characters that can be otherwise too perfect. The two apparently minor hobbits have another role, too, Shippey writes: it is to remain of good courage when even strong men start to doubt whether victory is possible, as when Pippin comforts the soldier of Gondor, Beregond, as the hordes of Mordor approach Minas Tirith. He notes that Pippin and Merry serve, too, as guides to introduce the reader to seeing the various non-human characters, letting the reader know that an ent looks an old tree stump or “almost like the figure of some gnarled old man”. Quote from Wikipedia : The critic Tom Shippey notes that Tolkien uses the two hobbits and their low simple humour as foils for the much higher romance to which he was aspiring with the more heroic and kingly figures of Theoden, Denethor, and Aragorn: an unfamiliar and old-fashioned writing style that might otherwise have lost his readers entirely. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, Pippin and Merry tend to go their own way sometimes and by doing so, they serve in the role of tricksters. The loveable rascal is an important component of any epic tale. The rogue’s job is to inject energy into the story. Vogler describes the trickster as: someone who embodies the energies of mischief and desire for change. He is the ray of sunshine in what is actually a dark tale. What I love about the character of Han Solo is the way he livens things up. He points out to our hero that a blaster is more reliable than the force, and has no problem cold-bloodedly murdering a bounty hunter in a crowded bar. No one gets to be a princess around him, not even an actual princess. Han Solo’s primary role is keep everyone grounded. He rarely learns anything from his failures. He’s contradictory, in that he doesn’t believe in the force but relies on his luck.Īlways courageous but not stupid, Han Solo takes incredible chances, and usually comes out on top. This is a man who is slightly older than the rest of the cast and has been around long enough to become jaded. Who is a good example of the trickster in modern mythology? Let’s look at the first three Star Wars movies, and the character of Han Solo. Loki sometimes helps the gods and other times he is the villain. When I need a thief, I automatically think of Loki-the consummate trickster of Norse mythology. Often in mythology, the bending/breaking of rules takes the form of tricks or thievery. In Slavic folktales, the trickster and the culture hero are often combined. He is the patron of thieves and the inventor of lying, a gift he passed on to Autolycus, who in turn passed it on to Odysseus. In some Greek myths, Hermes plays the trickster. In my last post, I mentioned that tricksters:Īll cultures have tales of the trickster, a crafty creature who uses cunning to get food, steal precious possessions, or simply cause mischief. His 2007 book, The Writer’s Journey, Mythic Structure for Writers, offers insights into character development and takes the mythical aspects of the hero’s journey and places it into pop culture, from movies to television, to books. In his famous book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, philosopher Joseph Campbell discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world mythologies.Ĭhristopher Vogler takes Campbell’s concept of the monomyth and applies it to modern storytelling. My lead characters always have companions, and one of them is usually the trickster.
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