Deception
As Sacred Stories are sometimes meant to teach lessons and display human nature, acts of deception can be part of that. Deception can be defined as an act of purposely misleading someone, concealing information, or manipulating to gain advantage or cause harm. In the Judeo-Christian story of brothers Jacob and Esau, Jacob uses deception to gain a blessing meant for Esau. The Greek story of Penelope as written in the Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, Penelope uses deception of weaving a shroud to delay choosing a new husband. Alongside those, the West African story of Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox and the Tar-Baby display deception within the Tar-Baby itself.
These stories display deception in forms of lies and misleading actions, such as illusions or fraud. While these three traditions display acts of deception, the deception is utilized for differing reasons: the Judeo-Christian story of Jacob and Esau is talking back against age hierarchy, the Greek story of Penelope from the Penelopiad is talking back against the patriarchy, and the West African Tar-Baby story as talking back against slavery.
Jacob and Esau
The story of Jacob and Esau from the Bible’s book of Genesis, chapters 25-28, tells of twin brothers Jacob and Esau, whose mother Rebekah was spoken over by the Lord, saying, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23). Esau was born first, and it is noted that Jacob followed close behind, gripping the heel of his older twin.
Jacob, as the younger son in the culture of birth order, would normally be under his old brother in age hierarchy. However, Rebekah knew the prophesy the Lord had given her, so she helped it come to fruition by aiding Jacob in the deception of her husband and Jacob’s father Isaac. At the time of the deception, Isaac was an elderly blind man and didn’t know how much longer he would live, so he wanted to pass his blessing on to his first-born. As the first-born in age hierarchy, Esau is entitled to that blessing. Jacob, at 40 years old, is talking back and defying birth order by tricking his father.
Since Esau is hairy, Rebekah wraps Jacob’s hands, arms and neck in goatskin, as Isaac will rely on touch to discern his son. In Genesis 27:22, “22 Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, ‘The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.’ 23 He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he proceeded to bless him. 24 ‘Are you really my son Esau?’ he asked. ‘I am,’ he replied.”
In the hierarchal standards of age where youngsters are told to listen to their elders, by the deception of his father for the blessing, Jacob had taken Esau’s power as the older sibling. The blessing in turn ensured that Esau would be under Jacob’s power the rest of their lives. Esau has been described as not being the brightest, debatably egocentric as well, and Jacob took the last thing that gave Esau agency over his brother. For Jacob, the blessing ensured power, an abundance of food and wine, and rule over nations and his brother. For Esau, it meant forever serving his younger brother. Indirectly, Jacob is saying he is better fit for the duties an elder brother holds.
Penelope
In the Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, Penelope uses her agency as a queen to deceive suitors while waiting for her husband, Odysseus to return from years at sea. She told the suitors, “Not until this sacred work [weaving the shroud] was finished could I even think of choosing a new husband, but once I was completed I would speedily select the lucky man” (p. 87-88).
Penelope had no intention of ever completing the shroud that she was weaving for her father-in-law (who was indeed not dead yet). She states of her plan, “No one could oppose my task, it was so extremely pious. All day I would work away at my loom… But at night I would undo what I had accomplished, so the shroud never got any bigger” (88-89). Weaving the shroud demonstrates she is doing her duties as a queen. It was an inarguable act. At night, Penelope and her most trusted maids would unweave the shroud “behind locked doors, at dead of night, and by torchlight, for more than three years” (89).
Penelope is talking back to the societal standards of patriarchy. Her autonomy as a queen is empowering. Where society says there must be a man to fill the empty role of Odysseus, she stays true to her husband and holds the fort down on her own will. Her act of deceiving the suitors can be viewed as sociocentric because she was doing it, not only for herself, but to preserve and maintain the kingdom her husband ruled both for him and their son, Telemachus. She is proving that as a woman, she doesn’t need a man to fill any role for her other than her husband. It shows devotion in love, but also power in being able to hold off (and trick) a ton of men for three years.
Brer Fox and the Tar-Baby
The deception or illusion in the West African Brer Rabbit and Tar-Baby story is the Tar-Baby itself. A necessary perspective to know before reading or analyzing the story is that it was written down by Joel Chandler Harris who changed the dialect to reflect a racist agenda of portraying the story as “folksy” as a way of making the story appear less threatening to white readers. It is a survival story, distorted in the Jim-Crow era to dehumanize African Americans by distorting their language to suggest unintelligence.
The point of the original story was for African American slaves to have a story portraying their vision of resistance to white slave owners and slavery. It was meant to be empowering for them to tell this trickster story, where trickster characteristics include the testing of limits and a type of freedom to do as they please. Tricksters usually do not do what they are told, hence the freedom to trick, play, and test others.
In the story, Brer Rabbit previously fooled Brer Fox regarding a calamus root. Brer Fox desired trickster-style revenge on Brer Rabbit, so Brer Fox devised a plan: the creation of a baby (maybe a baby rabbit) made of tar and turpentine. Brer Fox puts what they named Tar-Baby and puts it on the side of the road. When Brer Rabbit walks by, they try talking to the Tar-Baby, thinking they are real while Brer Fox is hiding in the bushes.
When the Tar-Baby doesn’t speak, Brer Rabbit gets frustrating, saying, “If you don’t take off that hat and tell me howdy, I’m going to bust you wide open.” Brer Rabbit goes to hit the Tar-Baby, and “his fist struck the side of her head and couldn’t come loose.” Brer Rabbit hits with each limb and headbutts, getting more stuck with each attempt.
Brer Fox tricking Brer Rabbit in return for a previous trick can be seen to represent enslaved peoples talking back to slave owners and against slavery. The comedic factor of the trick being a harmless joke comes out when Brer Fox “rolled on the ground, and laughed and laughed until he couldn’t laugh any more.” He said, “’I expect you’ll take dinner with me this time, Brer Rabbit. I [done] laid in some calamus root, and I’m not going to take [no] excuse.”
The empowerment that comes from this story is how the enslaved African Americans could imagine themselves getting back at the cruel system of slavery. They are able to engage in laughter potentially imagining themselves getting slave owners stuck in a trap and having the high ground. It a world where they were robbed of their humanity and any power, being able to tell stories was a way to continue to hold on to the hope of freedom.
Positionality: I write as a practicing Christian, non-African American, critical reader attentive to how acts of deception have a place in sacred stories, talking back against age hierarchy, patriarchal standards and slavery. I approach this analysis valuing sacred culture while seeking to understand the concept of how deception acts to indirectly fight back against societal constructions.
Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. The Penelopiad. Canongate Books, 2005.
Churcher, Kalen. “Br’er Rabbit: Social Sciences and Humanities: Research Starters: EBSCO Research.” EBSCO, http://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/social-sciences-and-humanities/brer-rabbit.
Internet Archive. “The tar-baby : and other rhymes of Uncle Remus.” https://dn790002.ca.archive.org/0/items/tarbabyrhymes00harrrich/tarbabyrhymes00harrrich.pdf
The Bible. New International Version.