Coyote Steals Fire Short Story

Trickster Tales “What is the price of the stories?” In this quote from How Stories Came to Earth, Kwaku Anansi shows interest in the sky-god Nyame stories. Trickster tales are stories with a leading character who is often an animal with human traits and magical powers. The stories How Stories Came to Earth and Coyote Steals Fire, have many similarities but fewer differences. There are many similarities in the trickster tales How Stories Came to Earth and Coyote Steals Fire. The first similarity is both stories use anthropomorphism. The tricksters are both animals in the stories and they both have conversations in the stories. The second similarity is that both Coyote and Anansi interact with gods in the stories. “Coyote won the game and so I give him the fire. But he cheated, and for that I shall take his life. Where is he so that I can kill him?” That was said by the god named Thunder after …show more content…
The first difference is that the role of women in the stories. In Coyote Steals Fire, women are seen as less than men in that, the di in the game were one point for the di made of female teeth and two for the male teeth but in How Stories Came to Earth, Anansi’s wife was equal to him. The second difference is the anthropomorphism. Anansi has a wife and only traps animals but in Coyote Steals Fire, coyote didn’t harm anyone and he was a shapeshifter. The third difference is the character’s interactions with gods. In How Stories Came to Earth, after anansi completed his task the sky-god then willingly gave him the stories while Thunder was angry at Coyote for cheating and didn’t want to give him the fire. The final difference between the two stories is how they benefitted society. After the stories were spread in How Stories Came to Earth, everybody was able to learn from them and in Coyote Steals Fire, Coyote steals the fire and breaks it into pieces so everyone could run away with their own piece of