Swiper As A Trickster

Dora the Explorer is one of many of the new shows for the next generation. This is a cartoon with various settings, depending on the adventure of the day. Dora is a girl that is bilingual and has a magic backpack and a monkey named Boots as a friend. She is always helping someone get home and/or out of a jam. Dora and Boots have traveled in time and to far away lands to help. Like most kids shows of today, it is an educational show that teaches Spanish words and counting. There are also the lessons on comparison, sharing, and compromise. The lessons are hidden within the show and not jammed down the viewer's throats. Interactivity is strongly promoted. Swiper is used to help teach the morals of right from wrong.

In Dora, Swiper plays the role of the trickster. Swiper is a fox that wears a mask and gloves, like a common thief would wear. Swiper is a traditional trickster in several ways.

Swiper displays several characteristics of a trickster as defined by Hynes. He is a fox, which is a common animal to be a trickster. He is very selfish as he disrupts what Dora is trying to accomplish for no reason than to annoy her. Swiper is always seen alone and doesn't join in with others. Most of the time the tricks he plays on Dora and Boots backfire on him.

In the episode Three Little Piggies, Swiper tries to steal the blue ribbons that the three pigs have won. He is stopped by Dora and her friend Boots, saying 'Swiper, no swiping" three times, but he scares the three piggies and they run away causing problems. While trying to round up the three piggies, Swiper keeps throwing Dora off the trail of them by disguising the way to go.

According to Hynes "his lying, cheating, tricking, and deceiving may derive from the trickster being simply an unconscious numbskull, or at other times, from the trickster being a malicious spoiler" (35). Swiper is a malicious spoiler as he tries to interrupt whatever Dora is doing for no good reason other than to amuse himself. Dora and her friends,