On My Terms - an Analysis of Multiple Aesop Fables

                On My Terms

        The legendary Chinese general and philosopher, Sun Tzu, once said, “If you know your enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.” Sun Tzu recognized that overcoming one’s enemies in any contest does not necessarily require that one be superior to them in every regard. Victory can be attained by exploiting an opponent’s weaknesses while emphasizing one’s own strengths – which requires an understanding of oneself and one’s rivals. For the characters within fables, social mobility within the hierarchy of the animal kingdom is an impossible occurrence, however, the pecking order can be disrupted when the weak use their cunning to neutralize the advantages of the strong. Animals cannot recreate who they are within the fable context –the traits they are born with are the ones they are stuck with. However, as we will observe from our analyses of the West African fable “Spider’s Bargain with God,” the North American story of “Coyote and Spider,” and the Aesop tale “The Vain Jackdaw,” it is not always those at the top of the food chain who will dominate every contest—those who are able to frame competitions in terms that are favorable to them are the ones who will secure victory.

        The West African fable “Spider’s Bargain with God,” in which Ananse the Spider is able to accomplish the seemingly impossible task of capturing the Leopard, the bees, and the Python by using cunning and manipulation, exemplifies the effectiveness of exploiting the weaknesses of one’s adversaries. When the sky god Nana Nyamee requests Ananse to bring forth these dangerous sacrifices in exchange for his stories, Ananse is initially scared – he knows that acquiring each tribute will be an incredibly dangerous task. Acknowledging that he could not simply imprison each animal by overpowering them, “[Ananse] went home and sat down and thought and thought” (Spider’s Bargain with God, pg. 38). The spider developed shrewd strategies for capturing each animal so that he would be able to avoid any direct confrontations—for he would surely be defeated in any physical battles. Instead, Ananse appeals to the Leopard’s desire for beautiful women and wonderful visions and to the egos of the bees and the Python.  By tricking the Leopard to be led away with his eyes sewn shut, by manipulating the bees to fly into the jar on their accord, and by fooling the Python so that he agrees to be tied to a stick, Ananse disarms each target so that they would pose no threat to him. This fable of Ananse conveys that power is not absolute – if one is able to isolate and neutralize the source of an adversary’s strength, the tables can be turned.

In the North American story “Coyote and Spider,” we again see how cleverness combined with an understanding of one’s abilities relative to others can temporarily undermine the structure of the animal hierarchy. When Coyote tells the first spider of the fable that he is going to eat him, the spider replies, “You know, I heard some people over there talking about killing you. I’ll go over there and find out what they are going to do” (Lopez 82). There is a reason why the spider tries to trick the Coyote instead of simply trying to run away: the Coyote is bigger, faster, and stronger than the spider – running away would not accomplish anything. Luckily for the spider, he recognizes this natural truth, and so instead devises a plan where he can escape Coyote without making it a contest of physical prowess. Similarly, the second spider in the fable caught by the Coyote also uses cleverness to neutralize the power of the Coyote by telling him, “This tree is chief of the whole world…shut your eyes for a while, hold on to this tree, and you will see everything” (Lopez 82-83). As soon as Coyote closes his eyes, the second spider makes his getaway. Their ability to correctly analyze the abilities of themselves and of the Coyote allows the spiders to reframe their confrontation with the Coyote so that the new rules of the contest – defined by mental wits rather than physical strength – are favorable to them.