Essay Questions

What is Virgil’s major malfunction?

Virgil Second has a problem that is not so easily solved. His ranking among the eighteen grandchildren of Lillian would probably be ninth. Unless it was eighth or tenth. He doesn’t carry the “bad boy” cache that gets cousin Chucky attention from girls—probably—just as much as it gets attention from cops. Nor is he quite up to the level of the flipside of his cousin Kelly who recently met the prime minister as the result of having won a speech context. As our narrator points out with a peculiarly form of viciousness: Virgil is a boy just built for the Bell Curve. Or, in other word, his major malfunction is that he is so completely average that there isn’t even anything about his average quality that sticks out. He is a seventh-grade student so dislocated from being interesting that he accounts vanilla ice cream, bad sitcoms and ginger ale as the highlight of his life. Memo to Virgil: in America, being a kid who whose favorite soft drink is ginger ale does make you stick out, so head south, young man!

What sight does the achingly average Virgil bear witness that takes this story well outside the domain of realism?

Actually, this could be answered by a number of things, but anyone who has read the book will know instantly which scene is being referenced here. Elements of realism do permeate the story: it is easy enough to recognize that we all live somewhere in the spectrum of the universe in which the tale unfolds. What there is no denying or getting around, however, is that there is one particular aspect of the story above all else that steps outside the boundaries of most people’s experience. And it is quite fitting that the model of the “norm” in the story is there to witness it. John and his motorcycle are present which means there is a pretty good chance weird stuff will take place, but neither Virgil nor his companion Wayne nor anyone else could be prepared for what takes place in the woods under the dark cover of night.

As they both watch hidden from view, the stranger who arrived on motorcycle proceeds to have an argument with a group of raccoons, headed by one particular participant standing on a stump. As Wayne wonders whether he might actually be under the influence of drugs, he and Virgil witness John defending himself against unproven charges he contends are nothing but slanderous and libelous accusations. You can bet higher-ranked Kelly never witnessed such a sight. And even if bottom-dweller Chucky had, it almost certainly would have been merely a drug-induced hallucination. Which this was not.

What are some other examples of the Trickster archetype?

The stranger who shows up on motorcycle and calls himself John turns out to actually be a Native American version of the Trickster archetype named Nanabush, or possibly Nanabouzoo. As Uncle Wayne explains to Virgil, the Trickster loves irony, has the ability to shapeshift, and, as the name suggests, is driven by a psychological impulse to deceive people. Nanabush appears as a major character in Native American playwright Tomson Highway’s play The Rez Sisters though in a much different way than John appears. Which, of course, can be interpreted as confirming Wayne’s contention about his ability to change appearance. In the early part of the novel’s existence the Trickster archetype was most familiarly known to readers in the form of the comic book character Loki as portrayed by actor Tom Hiddleston in the explicably popular Avengers movie franchise.

Uncle Wayne actually is right on target, however, as the Trickster archetype has taken on an amazingly flexible ability to change shape, form, and purpose in pop culture. Among the most well-known incarnations who qualify to one extent or another as examples are characters or specific interpretation that really run the gamut. For instance, Tom Baker’s incarnation in Doctor Who certainly qualifies while David Tennant’s does not. Lilo eventually discovers that Stitch is a Trickster while Bart Simpson began as an unqualified Trickster before eventually becoming less so. (One could make the same argument of Loki in his devolution from Branagh’s original Thor.) Bugs Bunny, Star Trek’s Q and Willy Wonka are some of the most instantly recognizable and beloved examples of the Trickster.