What is the moral of Brer Rabbit?
Br’er Rabbit is showing us that if we’re not strong we better be smart. He got himself into this pickle but is clever enough to see that fighting the situation will only make matters worse. He will only get more tar on him and Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear are so much stronger.
What does the African American folklore story of Brer Rabbit reveal about life for those who were enslaved?
What does the African American folklore story of “Brer Rabbit” reveal about life for those who were enslaved? African Americans devised ingenious ways of resisting their confinement by forging their own sense of community and inventing stories of resistance.
What is the story of Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby?
An archetypal trickster tale, the tar baby story describes how a fox entraps a rabbit by using a tar figure. The rabbit gets stuck to it in five places – front and hind feet and head – after mistaking it for a real person and pummeling it for not replying to his polite greetings.
Who does Brer Rabbit represent who does the fox represent?
the slave owner
Even in The Tar Baby, Brer Rabbit outwits Brer Bear and Brer Fox, who represent the slave owner. Brer Rabbit, the ”trickster,” is the slave. The retelling of these stories in strong dialect gave the slaves a chance to relieve their frustrations, aggressions and to have a good laugh at the expense of their owners.
What was the significance and meaning of the fable folktale story of Brer Rabbit outsmarts Brer Fox?
The character’s adventures embody an idea considered to be a universal creation among oppressed peoples—that a small, weak, but ingenious force can overcome a larger, stronger, but dull-witted power. Brer Rabbit continually outsmarts his bigger animal associates, Brer Fox, Brer Wolf, and Brer Bear.
What is the significance of the trickster figure in the African American literary tradition?
Therefore, the trickster is more than the childlike character who enjoys duping other pranksters and being “naughty.” In Pan-African traditions, the trickster is an animal or human character whose situation and movements symbolize the harsh conditions of millions of people of African descent due to brutal historical …
What does the Wonderful Tar Baby mean?
Built by Brer Fox specifically to entrap Brer Rabbit, the tar baby recalls basic stereotypes of blacks; it is dark black, foul smelling, motionless, and brainless.
What happens to Brer Rabbit at the end of the Tar Baby story?
“It’s not going to be much fun skinning you,” said Brer Fox, “you’re not scared of that. But you are scared of the briar patch.” And with that, Brer Fox yanked Brer Rabbit off the Tar-Baby, and he flung him -KERPLUNK!- right into the briar patch.
Why is Brer Rabbit a trickster?
One such trickster is Brer Rabbit, who was introduced to North America through the folktales of enslaved Africans. On the plantations, Brer Rabbit, like Anansi in the Caribbean, functioned as a resistance figure for the enslaved whose trickery was aimed at undermining and challenging the plantation regime.
What do trickster tales teach?
Often the trickster serves as a transformer and culture hero who creates order out of chaos. He may teach humans the skills of survival, such as how to make fire, procreate, or catch or raise food, usually through negative examples that end with his utter failure to accomplish these tasks.
Why is Brer Rabbit a folktale?
Though not always successful, the efforts of Br’er Rabbit made him a folk hero. Several elements in the Brer Rabbit Tar Baby story (e.g., rabbit needing to be taught a lesson, punching and head butting the rabbit, the stuck rabbit being swung around and around) are reminiscent of those found in a Zimbabwe-Botswana folktale.
Are there any Brer Rabbit stories about African slaves?
In a Cherokee tale about the briar patch, “the fox and the wolf throw the trickster rabbit into a thicket from which the rabbit quickly escapes.” There was a “melding of the Cherokee rabbit-trickster into the culture of African slaves.” There are nine books by Joel Chandler Harris that contain Brer Rabbit stories:
What African people tell children stories of a talking rabbit?
Among the Temne people in Sierra Leone, they tell children stories of a talking rabbit. Other regions of Africa also tell children stories of talking rabbits and other animals. These tales continue to be part of the traditional folklore of numerous peoples throughout those regions.
How many Brer Rabbit stories are there?
There are nine books by Joel Chandler Harris that contain Brer Rabbit stories: Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings (1881), containing 25 Brer Rabbit stories. Nights with Uncle Remus: Myths and Legends of the Old Plantation (1883), containing 52 Brer Rabbit stories.