Essay: Brer Rabbit- Southern Trickster Stories

I really enjoyed reading about Brer Rabbit this week. I had heard of the stories plenty of times in my life, but I had never read them before so I was excited to finally get the chance this week. What I liked about them was the central character of Brer Rabbit who I find to be one of the only American tricksters I know of from our storytelling tradition. Unlike the coyote or Loki, this trickster usually only unleashes his talents on the deserving Brer Fox who is always scheming to eat him or his children or other family members. Most of the time, he's just pulling a fast one on the fox to try to get out of whatever plan he's cooked up this time and doing so in a clever, humorous way.

However, there was one story in which the rabbit was a pure trickster without regard to right or wrong: Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear. In this tale, Brer Rabbit gets caught in a trap when trying to steal peanuts from Brer Fox's garden and is helped out of the trap by Brer Bear. That was nice of him right? Well, Brer Rabbit decides to trick Brer Bear into putting himself in the trap (he told the bear he was acting as a scarecrow) and then tells Brer Fox it was Brer Bear who had been stealing the peanuts, suggesting that he beat him with a stick (especially in the mouth to keep him from spilling the beans about what really happened). While this makes Brer Rabbit more of a true trickster because he doesn't care that Brer Bear did nothing to him to deserve such treatment, it did nothing to endear the character to me. Mischievous tricksters can have their funny moments, but I prefer that justice and fairness always prevail whenever possible. The fact that Brer Rabbit gets away with hurting a person who only ever helped him really damaged his reputation in my eyes. However, it must be taken into account that, in the rest of the stories, he only uses his cunning to escape the clutches of Brer Fox. Even when he goes out of his way just to mess with Brer Fox, he never steps over the boundary between good, clean fun and outright mean-spirited pranks. But, as the old saying goes, nobody's perfect.

Depiction of Brer Rabbit
(Wikimedia Commons)

Week 7 Storytelling: Have Some Integrity

One day, Brer Fox decided he was going to grow himself a peanut garden. He did all the hard labor, clearing the field behind his house, preparing the soil, planting the seeds, and tending the plants. His mouth watered as his plants greened, thinking of crunchy, salty peanuts and slick peanut oil. It wasn't long before someone else took notice of his growing garden: Brer Rabbit.

Now Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox have been in a feud of sorts, what with Brer Fox trying to eat the sly rabbit all the time. Why not too long ago, the scheming fox, with the help of Brer Wolf, had pretended to be dead in an attempt to get Brer Rabbit close enough that he could snatch him up. Even more recently than that, Brer Fox had been skulking around the rabbit's home, trying to find some grievance to lay against his children so he could gobble them up "with just cause." Well, you can imagine how Brer Rabbit's mind went to thinking up a plan to spoil the fox's botanical plans.

Every day, when Brer Fox was not attending to his peanuts, Brer Rabbit would sneak in and take his pick of peanuts before scampering out, just like he took food from other people's gardens. It didn't take that old fox long to realize his peanut plants where looking a little bare and even less time to suspect his cotton-tailed foe. So he devised a trap at the broken part of the fence Brer Rabbit was using to get into the garden, and left to run errands, allowing the rabbit time to get himself caught. And get caught he did.

Not five minutes after Brer Fox had disappeared over the hill, Brer Rabbit could be seen sneaking through the opening in the fence and... SNAP! The rope got caught up under his arms and Brer Rabbit was left hanging there, helpless as a fly in a spider web. Now this could have spelled disaster for our furry hero, if not for the appearance of Brer Bear. Brer Rabbit saw him ambling around the edge of the woods behind the garden and he called out to the bear.

Brer Rabbit caught in the trap (illustration by A. B. Frost)

"Hey there, Brer B'ar," he shouted, "Won't you come over here and help me down."

"Sure thing, Brer Rabbit." It was easy work for the large bear to yank the rope down far enough for the rabbit's feet to touch the ground so he could slip out.

"I just came in here to help my dear friend, Brer Fox, with his lovely peanut garden and I found myself hanging like a shirt on a line. Won't you help me surprise my good friend?" Brer Rabbit pleaded. Of course, kind Brer Bear obliged. "Alright, we'll help him pick all his peanuts before he gets back and we'll have a big neighborhood party to shell them all and share them all."

So the two of them got to work and by noon they had every basket full and every plant picked cleaned. They got Brer Rabbit's children to help them carry baskets up the road where they then rounded up everyone in the neighborhood to start shelling. By the time Brer Fox came back over the hill (expecting to find a humbled Brer Rabbit hanging in his tree), he was greeted by the sight of all his neighbors clustered in the road, snacking on some delicious-looking peanuts. He stopped dead in his tracks and his mouth popped wide open.

"Hi, there, Brer Fox," Brer Rabbit called to him with a wide grin. "We're all mighty thankful you decided to share your peanuts with your good friends here in the neighborhood." Not wanting to look mean-spirited, there was nothing Brer Fox could do but give a half-hearted "you're welcome," grab a big handful of what was left of his own peanuts, and plop down amongst the congregation.

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Author's Note: This story is based on the tale "Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear" from Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris (1881). In the original story, Brer Fox plants his garden and Brer Rabbit steals from it on a regular basis. However, it ended much differently and not to my liking at all. Brer Bear does help Brer Rabbit down from the trap, but he also convinces the bear to get into the trap himself, pretending like he had been acting as a scarecrow to keep critters out of the garden. Then, Brer Rabbit runs to Brer Fox and tells him that his peanut thief had been caught and was hanging up in his garden, suggesting he beat him with a stick (especially in the mouth so Brer Bear can't explain what really happened). The rabbit then runs off and hides in the mud, knowing the bear will be out to get his revenge. Mistaking Brer Rabbit for a frog, he takes false directions from the rabbit himself and Brer Rabbit hops on home, happy as a clam. The original story was also told in a much different manner, in a very rough, phonetic language. Here's an example (explaining that Brer Fox thinks he knows who the peanut-stealing culprit is): "He sorter speck who de somebody is, but ole Brer Rabbit he cover his tracks so cute dat Brer Fox dunner how ter ketch 'im."

I really disliked the original ending. I thought it was very uncalled for that Brer Rabbit hung Brer Bear out to dry (pretty literally) when he hadn't done anything wrong. So I fixed the story to be more like the other ones, where Brer Rabbit is a clever, comical, good character who sticks it to Brer Fox (who actually deserves to be pranked for trying to eat Brer Rabbit all the time).

Reading Diary B: Brer Rabbit

Here are my favorites from the Brer Rabbit unit:

A Story about the Little Rabbits: This story reminded me of an Aesop fable that I read the first week of school. In the fable, a wolf tries to find (i.e. makes up) supposed slights made against him by a sheep so that he could eat him. In "A Story about the Little Rabbits," Brer Wolf tries to get Brer Rabbit's children to fail at tasks he asks them to complete so that he can have a "valid" reason to eat them. Thankfully, a little bird tells them how to complete the feats and then their father comes home. I like when I find similar stories throughout the different units that I read so it was awesome to find this connection between two very distant units (in terms of when and where they originated from).

Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear: This story should actually be called an UN-favorite because it made me really mad, but I wanted to rant about it. Brer Rabbit is a tricky character; he usually outsmarts the scheming Brer Fox in a comical way. However, this time I think he took it way too far. He was stealing peanuts from Brer Fox's garden and, when he gots caught, he tricks Brer B'ar into getting him out of the trap and putting himself in it. Not only that, then he brings Brer Fox to the trapped bear, tells him he was the one stealing from his garden, and then suggests he beat the bear with a stick. Not cool at all, Brer Rabbit. You could have just had Brer B'ar take you down and then run off. What did he ever do to you to deserve this fate? Nothing. Shame on you.

Brer Rabbit caught in Brer Fox's trap
(Illustration by A. B. Frost)

The Story of the Deluge: This story was very different from most of the other stories. It's not actually a Brer Rabbit story because the titular character doesn't make an appearance in it. Instead, it appears to take place somewhere in Africa. The big message I took away from it was "Don't step on those beneath you, just because they're beneath you. If they band together, they can be a force to reckon with." The elephant sees no problem with smashing the crawfish with his big feet. They eventually get fed up with it, so they and some other small, water animals make the place flood to show the big animal bullies that they're not going to take it anymore.

Plantation Proverbs: This was just a long list of proverbs, but I found a few that I thought were very thoughtful or funny. The first one was "Looks won't do ter split rails with." Basically, it's saying that good looks aren't very useful. Attractiveness is nice and all, but there are more important things. The second one was "Licker (liquor) talks mighty loud w'en it get loose fum (from) de jug." This is just a pretty accurate statement. Most people know what drunk calling and drunk texting is; you tend to say things you don't mean to when you've had too much to drink. The last one I really enjoyed was "Watch out w'en you'er (you're) gittin all you want. Fattenin' hogs ain't in luck." This is basically saying to beware of things that seem too good to be true because they probably are.

Reading Diary A: Brer Rabbit

Here are my favorites from the Brer Rabbit unit:

The Calamus Foot: This is the first story in the unit and it really sets the tone for how the rest of the first half plays out. Brer Fox tries his hardest to catch Brer Rabbit so that he can eat him, but Brer Rabbit outsmarts him like he always does. Brer Fox tries to cook up plans to trick Brer Rabbit, but they hardly ever work. And even when they do work, he still manages to let Brer Rabbit get away. I like Brer Rabbit because he's clever and he's self-described as sassy. I also think it's interesting how, in these stories, the fox is the one who is always outwitted whereas in most other storytelling traditions, the fox is usually the clever, sly one.

How Mr. Rabbit for too Smart for Mr. Fox: Remember how I said Brer Fox's plans don't work out even when they do? This is what I was talking about. He manages to get Brer Rabbit caught on a "tar-baby" (basically a doll covered in tar). This should be the end of Brer Rabbit, right? He should just stick him over the fire and be done with it. But Brer Rabbit is very clever. He convinces Brer Fox to throw him into the brier patch by asking him to do anything but that, using a bit of reverse psychology. Of course, Brer Fox wants to stick it to Brer Rabbit real good for all the trouble he caused him so he does what he thinks is the worse thing he could do to him. Brer Rabbit ends up getting away and Brer Fox is left empty-handed and disappointed like always. The picture below is from this story, but this is how I imagine Brer Fox looks at the end of most of the stories.

Mr. Fox outwitted again
(Illustration by A.B. Frost)

How Mr. Fox is Outdone by Mr. Buzzard: It's not just Brer Rabbit who gets the best of Brer Fox in these stories. Brer Fox had enlisted Brer Buzzard's help in catching Brer Rabbit, thinking he had caught him sleeping in a tree trunk. When it turns out he isn't there, Brer Fox turns on Brer Buzzard and catches him by the neck. It seems like it should be another easy win for Brer Fox; he just needs to take the ax he was using to fell the tree to chop Brer Buzzard's neck (I know that's violent, but this is something a typical villain would do). But, of course, that's not what Brer Fox does. After Brer Buzzard begs for a while, Brer Fox decides to grab him by the tail feathers before finishing him off. The tail feathers come right off and Brer Fox can't do anything but watch as another one gets away.

Mr. Wolf Makes a Failure: In this story, Brer Fox gets some help from Brer Wolf. The wolf in literature is another character that is often portrayed as clever or cunning. Two heads are supposed to be better than one, but Brer Rabbit still manages to outsmart both the antagonists in this tale. Really, it's mostly Brer Fox's fault. Brer Wolf's plan had worked perfectly: Brer Rabbit went to Brer Fox's house to see if he was really dead or not. Brer Wolf had told Brer Fox not to move at all until Brer Rabbit came up to put a hand on him, but the rabbit tricked him into moving by saying that real dead people kick their foot and make a noise. Brer Fox does exactly what Brer Rabbit says and the rabbit gets his tail out of there as fast as he can. If he had just followed Brer Wolfs's instructions, Brer Rabbit might have really believed the fox was dead and might have been caught for good. Not that I'm rooting for Brer Fox, it just seems to me that the title is incorrect; the fox was the one who failed, not the wolf.