Essential Questions:
- What is cultural appropriation?
- Who can tell what stories?
- How does being an outsider to a culture change/bias/influence how a story is told?
Background for Teachers:
- Text choices: Brer Rabbit, La Llorona
Class Activities:
- La Llorona: Compare textual and musical versions, especially those found in "La Llorona in juvenile hall". Discuss La Llorona’s pop culture appearance in mainstream American media, e.g. Supernatural S01E01, Grimm S02E09, The Curse of La Llorona (2019), Coco (2017).
- Brer Rabbit: Read selections of Brer Rabbit/Hare stories & compare the plots/archetypes/themes/moral across multiple accounts. Read biography of Joel Chandler Harris & discuss the appropriateness of his authorship. (Compare with Theal in South Africa & Enid Blyton in UK)
- Suggested stories:
- “XVII Mr. Rabbit Nibbles Up The Butter” (Harris 1921, 81-87)
- “Story of the Hare”(Theal 1886, 178-185)
- “Brer Rabbit and the Butter” (Blyton 2016, 144-149)
XVII Mr. Rabbit Nibbles Up The Butter43 (Edited by Jessie Piper into Standard English)
Uncle Remus told the boy a story:
Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and Brer Possum have put provisions together in the same shanty, but the roof has begun to leak. The three animals get together to work on patching the roof one day, and place all their food in the springhouse to keep them cool. Brer Rabbit, stomach growling, decides to go steal some of Brer Fox’s butter. He stops working, raising his ear, and claims to hear someone calling him from far away. He jumps down, goes to the springhouse, and eats some butter before returning to work. He tells Brer Fox that his children called him home, because his wife has taken ill. A little while later, he repeats the act, jumps down, eats more butter, and says his wife has gotten worse. He does it again, a third time, and eats all the butter. When he returns, Brer Fox asks after Mrs. Rabbit, and Brer Rabbit says that she has died. Brer Fox and Brer Possum sympathize and they keep working until dinner, when Brer Fox and Brer Possum try to cheer Brer Rabbit up. Brer Fox sends Brer Possum to fetch the butter from the springhouse, but Brer Possum returns empty handed. Brer Rabbit, looking solemn, says he suspects that the butter did not dry up, as Brer Possum suggested, but instead melted in someone’s mouth.
They all go up to the springhouse, Brer Rabbit says he sees tracks all around, and if they all go to sleep, he can catch the butter thief. As Brer Fox and Brer Possum drift off to sleep, Brer Rabbit stays up. He smears butter from his paws on Brer Possum’s mouth, goes off to eat the dinner that Brer Fox was setting up, then comes back to wake up Brer Fox and frame Brer Possum. Brer Fox argues that Brer Possum, who denies stealing the butter, was the first one to the springhouse, and the first to report the butter missing, and it’s on his face! Brer Possum, seeing he has been backed into a corner, proposes a solution: build a big brush pile, set it on fire, and each of them will try to jump over it- the one who falls in is the butter thief. Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox agree, and they build the big pile and light it on fire. Brer Rabbit jumps over the fire like a bird in flight. Brer Fox jumps over but the end of his tail catches fire.
Uncle Remus asked the boy if he’s seen a fox, and isn’t the end of his tail white? That’s the scar of the brushfire- they are marked. The boys asked about Brer Possum.
Brer Possum runs back, takes a big jump, and lands right in the fire and dies.
The boy protested that Brer Possum didn’t steal the butter- the punishment is unjust. Uncle Remus tells the moral: “In this world, lots of folks have got to suffer for other folks' sins. Looks like it’s mighty wrong; but it’s just that way. Tribulation seems like she’s waiting round the corner to catch one and all of us, honey.”
