I, Tituba

The one thing I sorta did not understand about I, Tituba is if she was a healer or a witch. She could be both but I wondered that through out the novel. I might have missed if it was specified that she was a witch (although it’s in the title). Tituba’s life seemed tragic. She was conceived through a traumatic experience only to witness a few traumatic experiences as well. It seems like she just wants to live her life the best way she can however with her being a slave that is not completely possible. The fact that she was not born into slavery and was free, or as free as she could be, but decided to enter slavery for a man seems really stupid to me. She actually makes tons of bad decisions in this novel with that being the first. The second would be her confessing to be a witch at her husbands request only for him to leave her.

Having Hester Prynne in this book could mean several things. I for one see it as a representtion of how women were being mistreated. I see this in the treatment of both Hester and Tituba. This could be very wrong I might add. After a failed relationship with her and the man who freed her she goes back to Barbaoes. She is asked to heal a slave boy who after he heals they become very close and have a mother/son relationship. The boy, Iphigene, becomes a part of the rebellion Christopher, a man who she also had a relationship with, rats them out to the plantation owners. Tituba is then killed. There were many parts of this sotry that made me angry. Tituba is just entirely too trusting. Each person that she was somehow involved with betrayed or hurt her in some way. This is something that black women go through through out their lives. They are often seen a trusting motherly figure and often times it back fires and gets them hurt instead.