The Trickster who Gets Tricked

Have you ever heard of the saying “What goes around comes around?” In the story “Uglier Than a Grinning Buzzard” by Louise Anderson from the anthology Talk That Talk we see this saying come true. The main character in this story is the trickster Buzzard who tricked other animals into jumping in his back to later drop them and eat them. The antagonist is the monkey who in a turn of events, tricks Buzzard and teaches him not to trick the rest of the animals.

In the story, “Uglier Than a Grinning Buzzard” I found two tricksters: Buzzard and Monkey. The Buzzard is a trickster because he took advantage other the hot weather to trick the other animals. He found the weakness that the other animals had and used it to his advantage. First he pretended to be their friends and offered them a ride to cool off. Then, he dropped them on their back and ate them. The monkey, also a trickster, found a weakness on Buzzard and used it to trick him. Monkey noticed that Buzzard was weak for an easy pray and used it to teach Buzzard a lesson. He also hopped on Buzzard’s back but instead of falling like the other animals; monkey used his tail to choke Buzzards and taught him to not trick the other animals. These actions show how both of these characters are trickster.

There are many ways an author can reveal a character. Two ways the author revealed the character of Buzzard was by his actions and by what the other characters said about him. Before reading of Buzzard’s trickster ways, through Rabbit’s mama that, “Whatever you do, don’t trust a buzzard!” This immediately shows the reader the bad reputation that Buzzard has before learning of his dirty schemes. Later, we learn of his actions, which prove what a trickster Buzzard is. He used other animals to his advantage, which proves that Rabbit’s mama was correct. In the case of Monkey, the author used Monkey’s thoughts and dialogue to reveal him as a character. In the story, we find the monkey analyzing Buzzard’s actions as he says, “Uh huh, um hum, right on, right on.” This shows that Monkey is astute as he is able to find Buzzard’s weakness and uses it to trick him. Although Anderson portrays Monkey as a trickster, she contrasts Monkey and Buzzard’s behavior. Buzzard used his trickery to eat the animals while Monkey used trickery to teach Buzzard a lesson. Monkey didn’t use trickery to kill the Buzzard, though he could have, Monkey was a hero trickster because he saved the other animals in the jungle.

I found value in this story and believe it applies to today’s modern and technological world. Today people use technologies such as the Internet to meet people who take the role of the buzzard. Nobody can really know a person online and certainly can’t trust them. This story taught me to not use people to one’s advantage. Sometimes people pretend to be someone’s friend to gain something and once they are done, they cut them off their life. I don’t believe this is right. People shouldn’t use people for personal benefit.

The story, “Uglier Than a Grinning Buzzard” by Louise Anderson is a story about a trickster who gets tricked. It is a story of value to humans as it teaches us not to use others for our own benefit. As we learned in this story, what goes around does in deed come around.