The Anansi Stories highlight the importance of rational thought. The Anansi tales heavily enforce the saying “brains over brown.” Anansi faced opponents and problems that were totally bigger, for example snakes and leopards, and still prevailed because of higher thinking. When you think of a spider against a leopard, no one expects the spider to win, no one even expects a good show, but Anansi does it not through superior strenght, but through quick thinking and examination. Anansi didn’t defeat his enemies, he let them defeat themselves.
When I first heard this, my mind went back to Enlightenment thinkers. Of coarse not in the way they are seen or taught about, but the rational thinking and logic associated with them. However, emotion also plays a role in some stories, but they often don’t end well. For example in the video clip, Anansi gets angry at the end, exiles humans, but then starves. Rational thought was not used, but instead the Romantic expression of strong emotion which lead to his downfall. Even though Enlightenment thinkers weren’t connected to Anansi Stories, the logical process is clearly seen.
I like that you hit the ground running, giving us a framing argument in your first sentence: that the Anansi stories underline the importance of rational thought. You are right to latch on to this aspect of the stories as it appears to be the most important and most consistent throughout all (also it’s brains over brawn). I think you could have given a few more concrete examples from the text and also contextualized it in a way that would allow your reader (not me, but an abstract reader in general) to follow the argument. Remember, as you’re writing your paper, you don’t want to fall into summary (which you don’t do here and that’s great) but you also want to give enough information so that we can very easily follow your line of thought. It is, however, a bit on the short side of 350 words. 3/5