46 pages • 1 hour read
Maryse CondéI, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1992A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Epilogue Summary
Tituba begins, “My real story starts where this one leaves off and it has no end” (175). She recounts her spirit’s adventures on the island, healing and curing others—and primarily helping Iphigene, her “son and lover [and] companion for eternity” (175), to incite revolutions and insurrections.
Having died without giving birth, Tituba is allowed to choose a descendant, a girl named Samantha. She teaches her the secrets of the invisible world. Her one regret is being separated from Hester, who is on the other side of the ocean, “pursuing her dreams of creating a world of women that will be more just and humane” (178).
About America, Tituba declares:
A vast, cruel land where the spirits only beget evil! Soon they will be covering their faces with hoods, the better to torture us. They will lock up our children behind the heavy gates of the ghettos. They will deny us our rights and blood will beget blood (177-78).
About her present-day existence and that of the reader, she proclaims:
I can understand the past, read the present, and look into the future. Now I know why there is so much suffering and why the eyes of our people are brimming with water and salt. But I know, too, that there will be an end to this (178).
Epilogue Analysis
Tituba herself clarifies the epic journey of her character: “My real story starts where this one leaves off and it has no ending” (175). With those words, Tituba defines her fictional character, her historical character, and her immortal character—returned from pilgrimage and death to, in a metafictional address, tell the tale of the making of her tale.
The metanarrative reaches its peak of intermingling author and narrator to ask the English-speaking, American reader: If the history of the Salem witch trials represents an example of white, patriarchal society’s exploitation of women and people of color, then shouldn’t the depiction accepted as official documents in America today either be changed or risk being considered an example of how “in terms of narrow-mindedness, hypocrisy, and racism, little has changed since the days of the Puritans” (203)?
