This document provides an agenda and materials for an English writing class. The agenda includes discussing the film "M Butterfly" and introducing an essay assignment on trickster tales. Students will evaluate the character of Song from "M Butterfly" as a potential trickster. The document also includes exam terms, discussion questions on "M Butterfly", and an introduction to the research paper topic on how trickster tales reveal aspects of human nature. Homework includes catching up on reading and posting an in-class writing response.

1. CLASS 17
EWRT 1B

2. AGENDA
 Exam 3: Terms
 Discussion:
 QHQ M Butterfly
 ―Defining the Trickster‖
 Introduction to Essay #4
 Lecture:
 Tricksters and Trickster Tales
 In-class writing:
 Evaluating Song as a Trickster Character

3. EXAM 3: VOCAB AND TERMS
Answer all 25 questions; there are questions
on the back.
Extra credit to anyone who can identify one or
both of the authors of these two examples that
I used to demonstrate figurative language.
―All the world’s a stage‖
 The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

4. M BUTTERFLY
QHQ

5. M BUTTERFLY: THE LOVE
 Why is Gallimard so attracted to Song?
 Was Song actually submissive?
 Is Gallimard blinded by stereotypes (race, sexual, cultural)?
 Do you think, deep down, that Song actually loved Gallimard in
return?
 Did [Song] truly like this man as for him or for the fact that she
was forced to by her undercover party?
 Does this [affair with Song] make Gallimard Gay?
 Do you think that he would ever have fallen in love with Song as a
man?

6. THE DECEPTION
 How does Gallimard not notice song is man during those 20 years
they spend together in France?
 Did Gallimard really not realize that Song was a man?
 Is Rene in denial over Songs gender?
 What was the purpose of Song telling Gallimard the scenario of
the ―blonde cheerleader‖ killing herself for the ―short Japanese
businessman‖?
 Do you believe this scene to be a tool of foreshadowing in the
film?

7. THE SECRET OPERATION
 Did Song target Gallimard specifically from the beginning, or
was it by chance that he fell in love with him?
 Why did Gallimard leak such valuable information to Song?
 Why didn’t Gallimard think about the consequences before he
dispelled his secrets to Song?
 Does Comrade Chin believe Song’s behavior is just to get
information?
 Why did Song LiLing come to France?

8. THE REVEAL
• Did song ever feel any sympathy for Gallimard after being with him for
so many years.
• Why does Gallimard burst into laughter when Song takes off his
underwear?
• Why do you think that Gallimard could not love the man who was the
woman he fell in love with?
• If Song was in love with Gallimard, why would he tell the truth when he
was in the court?
• If Song revealed his true identity earlier, would Gallimard have acted
differently?
• Is there ever a right time for Song to reveal his true gender identity to
the man he loves?

9. AND THEN?
 Why would he have such a splendid time in prison?
 Has Gallimard gone mad?
 Why does Gallimard want us to envy his love?
 At the end of the movie Gallimard says that he should be praised because unlike
many man he had the love of a great woman. Does this mean that he regretted
giving Song up because of her lies?
 why was it so important for Gallimard to share his story with his cell mates before
he killed himself?
 Why does Gallimard dress up as Madame Butterfly at the end?
 Was Gallimard the butterfly in the end, or were both of the characters a butterfly?
 How did Song feel once the whole ordeal was over and he was returning home
free?
 Is it wrong for Song to pretend to be a woman for all those years?
 How much of our own sexuality are we willing to accept or not without realizing it?
 How can this story tell what the Westerner thought about the Oriental women?
 how did the film portray Asians?
 What are some differences between the movie and the book ?

10. INTRODUCTION TO ESSAY #4:
THE RESEARCH ESSAY.

11. INTRODUCTION TO ESSAY #4:
THE RESEARCH ESSAY.
Trickster characters have existed in stories from
most cultures since the earliest times. The long-
lasting appeal of this archetype (a recurring symbol
of a recurring model) emphasizes the cultural need
to acknowledge that all is not what it seems to be,
that we need to be on the lookout for those who
would fool us. It is not hard to account for the
appeal of tricksters—they are fun in their radical
assault on the status quo, yet their trickery also
strikes a deeper chord for most people.


12. As societies have evolved, the cultural function of the trickster
has been reinvented: who or what are they in a modern society?
When and why do they appear?
Helen Lock, in her essay ―Transformations of the Trickster,‖
writes,
Contentious issues include the status of the archaic archetypal
tricksters (were they mortal or divine? can a god be a trickster?), the
relation of tricksters to gender and to ethnicity, and the vexed
question of whether modern tricksters exist at all. In one sense it
does seem entirely appropriate that these embodiments of ambiguity
(no dispute there, at least) should remain so elusive. However, it is
still important to address these tricky questions, because the
trickster performs such fundamental cultural work: in
understanding the trickster better, we better understand
ourselves, and the perhaps subconscious aspects of ourselves
that respond to the trickster’s unsettling and transformative
behavior.

13. TOPIC:
For this essay, consider trickster tales and
trickster or trickster-like characters from
our reading. Do they, as Lock asserts,
help us ―better understand ourselves, and
the perhaps subconscious aspects of
ourselves that respond to the trickster’s
unsettling and transformative behavior‖?
How? Or, do these trickster tales and
trickster or trickster-like characters serve
another purpose? Which?

14. • Which, from our reading, are clearly identifiable as trickster
tales?
• Can you include others, or parts of others, that are not so easily
identifiable?
• What makes them trickster tales?
• Which, from our reading, are trickster or trickster-like characters
• What characteristics make them tricksters?
• Morrison: ―Recitatif‖
• Hughes: ―Passing‖ and ―Passing‖
• Hughes: ―Who’s Passing for Who?‖
• Chesnutt: ―The Passing of Grandison‖
• Roth: The Human Stain
• Feinberg: Stone Butch Blues
• Hwang: M Butterfly

15. ABOUT TRICKSTERS
Southern slave trickster tales focus on outwitting the
plantation masters; in this way, they deviously attacked
the very system to which they were condemned: ―They
learned what justice was, and they learned, as slaves,
they had none. But they were able to make up stories
and even laugh in the face of their tragic predicament‖
(Hamilton, A Ring of Tricksters 9).

16. JEAN HARDY PROVIDES THIS
DEFINITION OF THIS ARCHETYPE:
The archetype of the Trickster…is the existence of the unexpected
as it appears in every human society, sometimes fully
acknowledged, sometimes feared and hidden. He is the opposite
of order – but then he is opposite of everything: he can turn into a
she…He is the Green Man, the Jester, the clown, the witch or the
wizard, Mercury, a shape shifter … the Fool with the potential at
times for becoming a Savior. He upsets normality and hierarchic
order…He can change the expected world, and therefore be an
agent of transformation. (1)

17. POSSIBLE TRAITS OF THE
TRICKSTER
• Deceitful: The trickster uses trickery to bring about
change.
• Self-Serving: The trickster often feels that he or she
has been wronged and is therefore justified in taking
action to bring about change and/or to defeat ―the
enemy.‖
• Shape Shifter: The trickster may change forms,
sex, and so forth as an element of surprise to his
victim. The change may also be psychological
instead of (or in addition to) a visual change.

18. Cultural Hero:
The trickster may be idealized as a cultural hero when, as the agent
of transformation, he or she overturns a cruel or unfair leader or
political/social system or reverses the fortunes of the more powerful
party. According to Helen Lock, this characteristic separates the fool
from the trickster. ―The true trickster’s trickery calls into question
fundamental assumptions about the way the world is organized, and
reveals the possibility of transforming them (even if for ignoble
[shameful] ends)‖ (6). Michael J. Carroll includes cultural hero as an
attribute as well; he characterizes the trickster as ―a transformer who
makes the world habitable for humans by ridding it of monsters or
who provides those things [such as fire] that make human society
possible (―Levi-Strauss, Freud, and the Trickster‖ 305). Hardy
characterizes the trickster as the source of unexpected changes in a
world where change is not always comfortable and as a symbol of
the uncertain world in which we live.

19. • Solitary creature – Many tricksters are solitary animals (or
humans), working alone rather than with a partner or within a
group – to undertake change. Michael P. Carroll notes that
―Ravens are usually sighted singly or at most in pairs; coyotes
forage independently…; hares have long been noted for their
solitariness…Spiders generally associate with members of their
own species on only two occasions: when they are born and
when they mate‖ (―Trickster as Selfish Buffoon‖ 115).
• Physically, intellectually, or socially weak creature: The trickster
is often portrayed as a much weaker character than his prey,
and yet through cleverness and trickery, he is able to overcome
all obstacles and prevail. In some cases the trickster may
appear to be weaker physically in order to confuse his prey
(false frailty).

20. • Special tools: The trickster may have special tools or
abilities that enable him to perform his acts. Often these
tools include magic and/or supernatural powers. An
example would be the Chinese Monkey who keeps a
needle behind his ear; when he removes the needle and
recites a request, the needle may turn into any tool or
implement that is required for a particular story.
• Teacher: The trickster is a purveyor of life lessons through
the stories, from manners to ethics. The teacher often
forces the reader to examine the status quo and often, ―to
break out of old stereotypes, whether they’ve been
imposed by ourselves, our families, our culture, or
circumstances (―The Trickster‖ 3).

21. DEFINING THE
TRICKSTER
Discussion

22. IN CLASS WRITING: SONG AS A
TRICKSTER CHARACTER:
How can we envision Song as a Trickster character?
Which of the definitions does she fit?
What are her goals as a trickster?
How many people and how many ways is she fooling
people?
What is her motivation?
What are the outcomes?
Does Song help us ―better understand ourselves, and the
perhaps subconscious aspects of ourselves that respond to
the trickster’s unsettling and transformative behavior‖?
How? Or does she/he serve another purpose? Which?

23. HOMEWORK
Reading: Catch Up Day!
Post # 24: Finish and post in-class writing
Studying: Terms
Next Class: We will meet in front of the
library for an orientation and an
opportunity to do research for your paper.
Please do not be late.