This detailed literature summary also contains Topics for Discussion and a Free Quiz on I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Condé. It also has been analyzed in literary academic journals and frequently assigned as mandatory reading in college English classes. Order our I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem Study Guide, Historical Note, Glossary, Afterword, Bibliography, teaching or studying I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem. She falls in love and marries a slave, John Indian, willing to return to slavery on his behalf. The rebellion is thwarted, and both Iphigene and Tituba are executed for their role in it. He decides to set her free, and sends her back to Barbados. The novel won the French Grand Prix award for women's literature in 1986.

Tituba and Iphigene join the spirit realm, inciting future revolts whenever possible. It won the French Grand Prix award for women's literature. After Yaya dies, Tituba moves onto an isolated farm where she practices her healing techniques. Tituba is rescued from prison by Benjamin Cohen, a Jewish merchant who, as Tituba suggests in narration, has been subject to as much persecution as she has. This study guide contains the following sections: This detailed literature summary also contains Topics for Discussion and a Free Quiz on LIBRARY. Tituba soon realizes that she has compromised herself and her identity by allowing herself to be put into a position of submission to Susanna, but her desire to be with John Indian is too strong for her to leave. After narrating the circumstances of her child, Tituba describes Abena's death by hanging for resisting the sexual advances of her white owner. View All Titles. Other Resources. Tituba's mother is hanged after defending herself from the sexual advances of her white owner. Review: 'I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem' ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=I,_Tituba:_Black_Witch_of_Salem&oldid=980886966, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 29 September 2020, at 02:07. I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to He plans a revolt against the plantation owners. She grows up living with an old spiritual herbalist named Mama Yaya, and learning about traditional healing methods. A lengthy Afterword contains an interview with the author in which she discusses the circumstances and intent with which "I, Tituba ..." came into being.

Literary Devices. Tituba survives the trials by confessing, and is sold as a servant to a Jewish merchant, Benjamin Cohen d'Azevedo. [1] The English translation includes a foreword by activist Angela Davis, who calls the book an "historical novel about the black witch of Salem". Tituba is thrown into a cell with a pregnant Hester Prynne, the heroine from Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter. The ultra-Christian community to which Parris and his household are eventually posted (Salem, Massachusetts) treat Tituba with mistrust, as she has gained the reputation and status of a witch. As a narrative reconstruction of the Salem witch trials giving voice to the black, female slave who was denied her existence, it brings attention to how historical records are a verification of the power structure of white, patriarchal society. While its primary thematic concern is with discrimination and its manifestations, the narrative also explores themes relating to the corrupting power of revenge and the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Tituba is run off the plantation and becomes a maroon, having no owner, but not able to connect to society. The Boston Sunday Globe said: "Stunning...Maryse Conde's imaginative subversion of historical records forms a critique of contemporary American society and its ingrained racism and sexism."[3]. Shortly thereafter, Tituba and John Indian are sold to Samuel Parris, the Puritan clergyman known historically for bringing about the Salem Witch Trials. I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Condé. everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem. She returns to the shack where she had lived with Mama Yaya, and works as a healing herbalist for the slaves in the area. He sends Tituba back to Barbados, where she is at first welcomed as a kind of heroine by the Maroons, a group of ex-slave rebels. Privacy Policy. [2] While related to the Salem witch trials, Conde's novel is a work of fiction. Eventually, as the apparent result of what Tituba firmly believes are the manipulations of Parris' niece Abigail, Tituba is tried for witchcraft and imprisoned. In the novel Tituba is biracial, born on Barbados to a young African slave woman who was raped by an English sailor. Moi, Tituba, Sorcière…Noire de Salem (1986) (also known as I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem) is a French novel by Maryse Condé.

A brief epilogue, still written in Tituba's first person narration, describes her fulfilling existence as a spirit, and expresses optimism for the future of black people. While Condé attests that Tituba is not a historical novel but instead a mock-epic tale and parody, the declaration of its artificiality is what affirms its authenticity. "I, Tituba ..." is a fictionalization of the real-life experiences of a black woman tried as a witch in 1600s America. The night before the revolt, the couple are arrested. Tituba is run off the plantation and becomes a maroon, having no owner, but not able to connect to society. help you understand the book. As she re-settles herself into what was once her life, Tituba finds herself drawn into an anti-white rebellion led, in part, by the youthful and impulsive Iphigene, whom Tituba takes into her home. She cares for Benjamin and his nine children until the Puritans set fire to the house, killing all the children. The slaves bring her a young man, Iphigene, who they thought would die, but Tituba nurses him back to health. Terms of Service Get I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem from Amazon.com. She grows up living with an old spiritual herbalist named Mama Yaya, and learning about traditional healing methods. Plot Summaries. She falls in love with the handsome, sexy, charismatic John Indian, and against her better judgment (and the advice of the ghostly Abena and Yaya) moves into his home on the estate of white slave owner Susanna Endicott. When it was published in English, it received excellent reviews. The story proper, told in first person past tense narration, begins with Tituba's description of her conception (the result of her mother, a black woman from Africa, being raped on a slave ship by an English sailor). Suggest a Title. They and his followers are hanged. As the plans of Iphigene and his fellow rebels near fruition, Tituba experiences heightened foreboding and omens of doom. The stern, rigid, Puritanical Christianity of the time is a vivid contrast, and powerfully defining context for the journey of personal transformation undertaken by the title character as she struggles to sustain her spiritual, racial, and gender identity.