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　千面人物形象在世界各國的文學作品中都有體現(xiàn)，但在印第安口頭文學中這一形象最為獨特，具有多面性和雜糅性。早期的人類學研究者將這一矛盾性看作對印第安人早期混沌的心理狀態(tài)的反映，并將其看作印第安文化落后的證據(jù)。而厄德里克卻對這一形象進行改寫，使它的雜糅、矛盾性成為獨特的視角來審視印第安文化與主流文化的沖突與融合。厄德里克將千面人物的矛盾特性運用在小說中，將他化身為具有不同特點的普通印第安人形象，打破了西方文化中印第安人千人一面的模式。厄德里克在其小說中還運用印第安民族的口頭文學傳統(tǒng)，由千面人物以講故事的形式向下一代傳遞民族文化，重建口頭文學在印第安文化中承載民族傳統(tǒng)、文化的重要地位。四部曲中千面人物面對種族迫害、生活悲劇時體現(xiàn)出的幽默感也是面對強勢文化的生存技巧。

　Franchot Ballinger makes an insightful summary of the major distinctions between the European picaro and the Native trickster. According to him， in the European literary tradition， picaro-the protagonist of picaresque is usually a young man oflow birth or obscure origin which determines his marginal status. However， it is the psychological distance that endows the picaro with a vantage point to discem the folly and phony of his society. There are two kinds ofpicaro， each satirizing society from a different perspective. The first type is particularly in early Spanish and German picaresque novels in which the picaro shares with his society some common human weaknesses， thereby this picaro becomes a mirror of the dark side of his society， but that society would blame and punish him for his sins and therefore casts him out.
　　The second picaro， Ballinger argues， is more often present in popular novels where the picaro is faultless and represents a superior moral order. He serves as a foil rather than a mirror to satirically reveal society's moral problems and corruption. In contrast， the trickster in Native American tales is more self-reflexive whose stories relate their own follies rather than that of the society， but his pathetic and ridiculous stories are a reflection of the common predicament of human beings. As Radin concludes， "If we laugh at him， he grins at us. What happens to him happens to us" (Radin， The Trickster 169).
　　The ending of picaresque novels is quite different from that of Native trickster tales. At the end oflus journey， the picaro still appears to be at odds with society， but nevertheless compromises with social mores. Tom Jones， for example， is brought back into the upper-class and becomes a gentleman. Moll Flanders also achieves gentility at the cost of losing much of herself (Michie 75-81). Huckleberry Finn refuses to be civilized， but finding nowhere to go， he has to light out for the West. His leaving， to a certain degree， is a passive escapism， a compromise between personal will and the reality. The trickster， on the other hand， remains independent and marginal at the end the story， except for some stories in which the trickster gets an epiphany and realizes his responsibility to the people as a culture hero and attempts to make the world more habitable for the people. But in those stories， the transformation is propelled by his conscience rather than external forces.
　　To sum up， the European picaro is usually marginalized by the codes and mores of his society， therefore， his marginality is socially imposed. The picaro's episodic adventures usually set off social corruptions. The Native American trickster， on the contrary， exposes the human weaknesses. The parody and paradox of trickster tales evoke laughter that is neither cynical nor idealistic， but more admonitory to his audience.
　　2. Tricksters in American Literature The trickster-like figure in the nineteenth-century American literature is called the confidence man. Confidence man， as the name suggests， is a tricky figure who manages to obtain others' confidence in order to gain financial advantages. William Lenz calls him "a distinctly American version" of trickster， setting his birth as a literary convention during the "flush times" in the 1830s and 1840s when America is in its full force for expansion-a period full of risks and opportunities for the con man (Lenz 1).
　　The term "Confidence man" was first employed by Professor Bergmann in "The Original Confidence Man" to refer to a swindler caught in New York city in 1849. Like trickster tales， those con men stories are also for the readers to laugh， but only at the folly or greed of the victims rather than the con man himself. In this sense， the readers are in league with the confidence man to grin at the victim's fall. As the very embodiment of the mobile and speculative American society during the nineteenth century， con man lived by keen perceptions of the weaknesses of human nature， which renders con man an especially useful agent for the writers of social satire. Nathaniel Hawthome， Herman Melville， Mark Twain， and Howells all include this figure in their works to expose social hypocrisy and corruptioncD. Among the novels; MeMlle's con man is the first well-developed American trickster and the earliest anti-hero in the tradition of American novels. According to William E. Lenz， the con man as a literary convention died out by the twentieth century when the closing ofthe frontier constrained his speculative schemes.

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