As a child, I remember seeing “Song of the South” and encountered an adorable and very influential character in my life. He is known as Brer Rabbit.

During one of my English exams, I have encountered him again. But who is really Brer Rabbit?

Brer Rabbit originated from folktales of African-American and Native-American. He became known as one of the first “trickster” characters. His characteristics are that he is known to be sly, and smart instead of conniving.

But what does he symbolize? The animal trickster represents an extreme form of behavior which people may be forced to use in extreme circumstances in order to survive. That is something that I am actually dealing myself at the moment. I am trying to determine what animal symbolism is important for my life and how to create that fursona. There are even certain groups in our society that are known as furries.

Brer Rabbit is known to be as the representation of smaller, weaker, yet more clevel forces that can overcome a larger stronger, but less clever power. He tends to outsmart his bigger animal rivals, such as the Brer Fox, the Brer Wolf, and Brer Bear.

Renowned author Joel Chandler Harris used and popularized these characters in his series of Uncle Remus Tales. And that was the origin of the Walt Disney movie of “Song of the South”. One of his most well-known Brer Rabbit tales is the story of Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby. Brer Fox has been trying to trap the rabbit and finally discovers to do it. He ends up setting a “tar baby”, and when Brer Rabbit encounters it, mayhem ensues.

Brer Rabbit gets stuck to the tar baby and the more he would fight against it, the more stuck he would become. – That alone could be a lesson for the readers. But it wouldn’t stop there.

In my life I see this as a parallel, sometimes as an individual you tend to get stuck on certain situations and may not know the way out, but you will eventually figure out a way to exit.

However, Brer Rabbit manages to trick the fox into throwing him within a briar patch. It may sound as a horrible punishment – at least that’s what we as the readers or audience would think of at first. But, the rabbit has lived his life in the briar patch, so he easily works his way free.

Though the Uncle Remus stories were written in the late 1800s, the stories of the “trickster” rabbit go back eons in time and will be passed along for many generations. Brer Rabbit will continue to be a triumphant hero and get within and out of sticky situations by outsmarting his foes.

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