Anansi Boys

It may not be often that you hear about a mystical spider ruling the universe, but it’s true! I know, I know… I thought myths were sooo 400 BC too, but Neil Gaiman has brought them back into fashion for the contemporary world! Infused with modern settings and characters, myths have never been cooler. Soon, everyone will be orally passing them down through generations!

In all seriousness though, in his book Anansi Boys, Gaiman truly has reinvented the mythic tradition, relating it back to the modern world while continuing to portray big ideas through his storytelling. In the novel, a god known as Anansi dies and leaves behind his two sons, namely Charlie and Spider. Throughout the course of the novel, the two learn more about each other (and their many differences) in addition to their heritage. While Spider is well acquainted with the magical side of the family and is overall bold, impulsive, and jovial, Charlie is at first unaware of Spider’s existence entirely and is unambitious, lackluster, and sheepish. It is a given, then, that the two would have some difficulties. Spider, using his magic, sleeps with Charlie’s fiancé and gets him involved in an embezzlement scheme, and Charlie, in response, foolishly requests the aid of another god to get rid of Spider. Nonetheless, it is only because of their differences that the two are able to overcome their final challenges. Charlie, once tremendously scared to sing in front of people because of what they might think, even goes as far as to not only sing, but also propose to a girl in front of a huge crowd. This would not have been possible, however, without Spider’s influence over him. Likewise, after enduring much, Spider is quite humbled after being saved by Charlie. Thus, the two learn from each other what the other had exceeded in and, despite being complete opposites, complimented each other quite well - perhaps a little too well.

Both Charlie and Spider are, until the end, both extraordinarily dull in their own ways, each seeming two dimensional and, consequently, lifeless. It would have seemed to me that they were both missing a whole part of their personality. It was only until the end of the novel that it was revealed that they were, in fact, the same person. It just happened that they were split into two separate beings at a young age. No wonder Charlie never knew about Spider. Thus, with the knowledge of their separation, the resulting terrible characters make perfect sense. However, while this may be a ‘mere’ myth, their emptiness is reflective of a larger theme. In the real world, it is often that we encounter rather… unfavorable people, yet it is rare that we ever consider why they are, indeed, unfavorable in the first place, despite the fact that it is rare too that such a reason does not exist, be it because of their childhood or a traumatizing experience. So when considering the characters of Charlie and Spider, each being entirely unlikable due to their having literally lost a part of themselves, it is clear that they represent the equally unlikable people in our day to day lives, each having metaphorically lost a part of themselves in one way or another. They are, in this sense, incomplete in some way, searching for the help they desperately desire. On the other hand, some people just want to watch the world burn, but let us not focus on them for today. Regardless, just as Charlie and Spider were able to overcome their own weaknesses in the end, so too can those in real life. This begs the question, then, of whether such people should be excused or are justified in their actions.

While there is an argument to be made that everyone is merely a result of their genetics and environment and therefore they have no free will and cannot be held accountable for their actions, (see “determinism”), this is, in any case, no standard to base society around, as it would ultimately lead to chaos. Thus, there must be some level of accountability in place. We, as individuals, cannot entirely excuse someone for being rude simply because something went wrong at some point in their life. However, that does not mean that we cannot understand such people and endeavor to help them. After all, nobody is perfect and everyone has weaknesses, so why would we not all try to understand each other, and in turn understand a little more about ourselves. In this way, we can all be someones Charlie to our Spider, and vice versa.

This idea of transformation and responsibility is one of many contemporary issues Gaiman touches on in Anansi Boys. Thus, while drawing inspiration from African mythology, Anansi being a West African trickster god, Gaiman places the reader in a relatable setting and speaks to modern issues through the lens of mythology. In doing so, he provides a way of thinking about big questions and themes like transformation, power, agency, and responsibility, in which readers find intense personal meaning. Moreover, in today’s polarized world, these ancient stories, now fitted to suit our modern age, have the great of advantage of reaching beyond that barrier, for they belong to none of us, and all of us.