The Anansi stories are nearly all about the same thing - gluttony. Anansi tricks people so that he is able to eat exorbitant amounts of food. Yet as most tales have him getting away with such actions, one comes to wonder if his actions are condoned more than they are condemned.
Yes, partly this may just be cultural differences - but while being able to eat a lot is desired, being a glutton is generally frowned upon. Gluttony is most often defined as too much, too fast, too often. Basically, it is an excessive intake. Our little spider fits this bill perfectly. He tricks people into letting him devour their food until he is gorged, and then comes back to do it again the very next day (see The Gub-Gub Peas). Anansi is never satisfied with ‘just enough’, he must eat all that there is and more. More often than not he succeeds.
Anansi is constantly eating, but he is also constantly using his cunning. The tales make a point time and time again to state that Anansi uses his cunning, he thinks, he outsmarts. The only times he loses is when other watch his tricks and then turn the tides to outsmart him. Perhaps, with all the insistence on his cunning, that aspect is being glorified more than the end to which he applies it. Anansi is a glutton, but he is a cunning glutton. Anansi uses his brain to outsmart those around him so that he can get what he wants and that should be commended, even if what he wants isn’t exactly on the side of moral right. After all, everyone loves a good villain, even if none of us are likely to cheer him on.
Anansi wins in most of the tales, because his cunning is to be admired. So for Anansi I guess the means justify the end. Or, in this case, the beans.
(Joanna Gleason in "Maybe They're Magic"
From Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods
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