I Tituba Black Witch Of Salem Analysis

In the strict Puritan villages of Massachusetts Bay Colony in the late 1600s, people were uncomfortable about foreigners and strange manners. Puritans were bothered about the “evil eye”, where a sudden illness or death of an animal was commonly misinterpreted as the “devil’s work”. It was a place where anybody different was not trusted and Tituba was perhaps the most different among them. Maryse Condé’s novel I, Tituba Black Witch of Salem, is the story of a black woman who was born into a troubled life plagued with many challenges. Born by a mother who was a victim of rape, Tituba’s life is set for one that is filled with tragic and unlucky events. She seemed doomed for misfortune and grief due her trials and tribulations of the fact that she was an African American woman. Tituba, as well other female characters in this book are continually pushed around because of their gender. Anytime a woman tried to defend her human rights she was punished for it in the most extreme way possible. Maryse Condé takes on race, gender, religion, the idea of America as a land of wealth, the idea of the victim’s guilt, revenge, sexuality, and many other powerful motifs, and weaves them together in Tituba.
Throughout Tituba’s life she came across a lot of judgment from her own race that caused her to experience some draw backs. An example would be when Tituba lived by herself after Mama Yaya died where all of the other black slaves were viewing her in a way of disgust. She stated “when they saw me, everybody jumped into the grass” (11). The slaves thought that Tituba should be at work with them, due to the color of her skin. They didn't take into account what she had been through, they just saw the color of her skin. In addition, Tituba felt discrim...

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...men who kept them in bondage and to sleep with them?” (6). Almost every night she would have to lie on her back and make love to her husband where she “unleashed [her] fury and [their] moments of love-making resembled a battle” (23) willingly or not. She was stripped of her body and womanly factors, and in her husband's eyes was made to be his sexual slave.
Every slave has endured pain. Tituba unfortunately had to withstand various situations and encounters in Barbados. Her beliefs were stripped and people continued to try and change her ways of thinking. She had to deal with racism within her own race as well as from the dislike of others. As she goes through these rough spots she must not forget who she is and where she has come from. Her goals prove to not let anyone break down her barrier that she, her mother, and Mama Yaya had so strongly sought to establish.