Reading Notes: More Brer Rabbit (A)

Title: How Mr. Lion Lost His Wool
Author: Joel Chandler Harris
Link: Story link.

Plot:

• Mr. Farmer decides to slaughter a few of his hogs and boils a barrel of water to soak the hides in.
• Brer Rabbit turns up and is immediately confronted by Fox and Wolf, two of his nemeses.
• Rabbit tells them that he plans to have himself a warm bath, as Farmer gave his hogs.
• Fox and Wolf help Rabbit heat some rocks in the fire, so as to boil another barrel of water.
• Midway through the commotion, Lion turns up, covered in terrible hair from head to toe. He demands to know what is going on.
• Rabbit cunningly tells him that they plan to have a nice, hot bath in the barrel and Lion decides he wants to have a turn first.
• Lion works himself into the barrel and is shocked by how hot the water is. He slips and is submerged up to his shoulder blades.
• The boiling water scalds Lion and burns off his coat, with the exception of his great mane. 
• This explains why lions today have such great quantities of hair in their mane, but only short fur everywhere else.

Mr. Lion bolts after losing "his wool" in the barrel. Source: Project Gutenberg.

Setting:

• No setting is specified, but it feels very deep south and in the back country. The sun is scorching, life moves slowly, and the roads are paved with dirt here. Wherever just came to mind for you works just fine as the story's location.
• This setting is especially rural, because it takes place on the farm.

Characters:

• Farmer: No real allegiances, just happens to be slaughtering a number of his hogs today. He doesn't fire Chekhov's Gun, but he loads it and leaves it lying around.
• Brer Rabbit: Still up to his tricks, still narrowly avoiding being consumed by his natural predators.
• He takes advantage of Lion's pride and assertive personality, knowing that he'll likely want to be the first to experience the "hot bath" in the Farmer's barrel.
• This setup and payoff reminds me of the whitewashing switcheroo in Huck Finn.

Writing Style:

• Still really flavorful dialect and I'm still too afraid to touch it myself.
• My favorite part of this story is the way that it functions as sort of a creation myth. Most of the Brer Rabbit tales are trickster stories and, while this one is too, it doubles as a method of explaining a modern day phenomenon. It's a fun take on the creation myth that feels way more accessible and lighthearted than a story of sweeping scale meant to inspire awe as it explains the origin of something.