A trickster is a being with an indifferent and amoral energy force. Even though tricksters are seen as external beings to the main character it is important to note that tricksters are a mirroring character, reflective of the inner struggle during a rite of passage. In “Mohammed with the Magic Finger” the uncle is going through his rite of passage to become an adult and his nephew, Mohammed, is the trickster. Mohammed is able to join his energy force to his uncle’s rite of passage and it becomes tame. Even though some of the actions of Mohammed can be seen as amoral his actions serve a purpose in the uncle’s journey.
The uncle must face the change from adolescence to adulthood and to complete this process he must go through a rite of passage. The reason he must separate from his adolescence is because it is filled with death. His wife kills his mother and his sister orders her husband to kill him. This is the first time we see Mohammed channel his energy when he kills his father and mother so that his uncle can escape into isolation.
Now that the uncle has been…show more content… Every day he is tasked with taking the man’s sheep out to pasture while carrying the man’s old mother on his shoulders ensuring that her feet don’t touch the ground and to catch seven singing birds for the man’s seven sons. After a few days the uncle is completely exhausted from this work and cannot continue his work. At the risk of breaking the contract Mohammed comes to take over the uncle’s work. Mohammed’s energy comes out from deep inside the uncle’s being and he uses tricks to defeat the dealer of the impossible tasks. First, he kills the old woman but says it is a result of her aging body. Then, he kills the boys and blames it on the father because he did not allow the son’s to face hardships in life. In his final trick he makes the man believe that his sheep are stolen and his cows have drowned. The man breaks the contract signifying the uncle’s satisfactory completion of his