I hadn't thought about Tricksters for quite a while, and then they were
usually the Coyote type. I've recently been reading the essays in
"Trickster Lives", especially the two related to Huckleberry Finn and
Roughing It. I see how Tom Sawyer and Br'er Rabbit fit the parameters
I'm familiar with but I'm concerned that assigning Twain's malevolent
Calvinist god to the role of trickster diminishes the utility of the
concept of Trickster. I suppose I'm just conflating Trickster with
Prankster and I don't see the Duke and the King as pranksters just
greedy opportunists. It's the same with "Confidence Men".
--/Unaffiliated Geographer and Twain aficionado/