The Tomfoolery of the Trickster Figure in Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo’s The Adventure of Anum the Tortoise

Abstract

In narratives, the trickster figure usually engages in various adventures thereby exposing his misdemeanor. This act gives humans (children) a sense of mythic origin which emerges, and re-emerges, in the present each time trickster appears in a narrative such as Akachi’s the Adventures of Anum the Tortoise. This article therefore brings to fore the antics of the trickster figure inherent in Children’s literature with particular reference to Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo’s The Adventures of Anum the Tortoise. Carl Jung’s Trickster Archetype is the theory upon which this study is anchored. The main aim of the study is to designate the nature of and to what effect are the antics of the trickster figure to the child reader. The Trickster figure as propounded by Jung is the figure represented as a malicious prankster fond of sly jokes, an embodiment of all that is repressed and disowned, the greedy needy rascal that lives somewhere inside every human being. A more glaring attribute of the trickster figure that permeates the text under study is that of deceit, greediness and trickery. Archetypes which are believed to be stored in the collective unconscious mind, and are considered a part of the human individuation process, triggers the psychological change in the individual. Thereupon, children who engage with children’s books, stand a great chance of unconsciously interacting with certain archetypes which consequently becomes conscious to the children. Thus, children’s behaviors are also formed from an encounter with the Trickster archetype.