30 pages • 1 hour read
Doris LessingNo Witchcraft for Sale
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1956A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Color: Yellow and Blue
The colors yellow and blue are recurring motifs throughout the story, particularly in the form of Teddy’s hair and eyes. His blond hair and blue eyes are praised and admired as signs of his special status. Indeed, Gideon says to Mrs. Farquar, “The Lord above sent this one; Little Yellow Head is the most good thing we have in our house” (67). His blond hair and blue eyes are a symbol of white supremacy, Teddy’s special status in his household, and his future role as the master of a household. Gideon uses this nickname even as Teddy grows older, indicating the deeply entrenched nature of white supremacy. His hair and eyes contrast with Gideon’s son’s, and as a child, Teddy reaches out “curiously to touch the black child’s cheeks and hair” (67), highlighting their differences.
Toward the end of the story, after he has led them six miles away from the house, Gideon picks a handful of blue flowers and shoves them into the scientist’s arms. They all know that these flowers are not the plant he used to cure Teddy, but Gideon refuses to share his knowledge. Here, Gideon takes a color associated with white supremacy and throws it back in the colonizers’ faces, symbolizing his desire to keep some of his own power and not give all of himself to his masters.
The Snake
The snake, which spits poison into Teddy’s eyes, represents native resistance to colonization. While colonizers came to South Africa and violently dominated the indigenous population, their power is circumstantial and fragile, as demonstrated by the snake’s ability to harm Teddy. None of the chemical ointments or Western medicine that Mrs. Farquar applies can heal the wounds caused by the snake’s poison; only Gideon’s root from the snake’s habitat can be the antidote. This represents the belief that the land ultimately belongs to its original inhabitants.
Given the Christian beliefs of both Gideon and the Farquars, a snake also carries biblical symbolism. In Genesis, the snake convinces Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden; in “No Witchcraft for Sale,” the snake hangs from a tree when it spits into Teddy’s face. It represents trouble in paradise, like the insidious way racism and classism can poison a culture. It also suggests the idea of humans overstepping their bounds, such as when white colonizers subjugate the people and land in Africa or turn natural healing techniques into profitable medicine.
The Healing Root
The root that Gideon uses to heal Teddy’s eyes represents the body of knowledge he and other native Africans have about the healing properties of the natural world around them. “Roots” can also refer to a person’s family lineage, and Lessing explicitly says that knowing about the healing properties contained within the plants of their land is part of the native African’s heritage, with the Farquars lamenting that:
The magical drug would remain where it was, unknown and useless except for the tiny scattering of Africans who had the knowledge, natives who might be digging a ditch for the municipality in a ragged shirt and a pair of patched shorts, but who were still born to healing, hereditary healers, being the nephews or sons of the old witch doctors whose ugly masks and bits of bone and all the uncouth properties of magic were the outward signs of real power and wisdom. (72)
With this, the root represents a small vestige of power that native Africans have over white colonizers, and the Africans in the story have an unspoken understanding that this knowledge is sacred and will not be shared with anyone outside of their culture. Notably, the Farquars feel Gideon’s refusal to share his knowledge transforms him from “their gentle, lovable old servant” into “this ignorant, perversely obstinate African” (70), revealing their feelings about Black people who try to stand in their power.
Eyes
Eyes are a recurring symbol in the story. First, Teddy’s blue eyes are so striking and special in contrast to all of the dark eyes of the African servants, representing how white supremacy exerts power over Black populations, even when it’s outnumbered. Later, the snake spits poison into Teddy’s eyes and they become grotesque and swollen, symbolizing how white supremacy’s power is actually fragile.
Eyes are often a symbol of knowledge and understanding; in the case of this story, eyes pair with the symbol of the snake in their connection to the biblical story of Eden. After the snake spits into Teddy’s eyes and Gideon heals them, the relationship between Teddy and Gideon becomes more complicated. Teddy is becoming more aware of his elevated social status as a white male, and Gideon has shown Teddy and his parents that he has special knowledge that he will not share. As Adam and Eve experience hardship, pain, and confusion as a result of eating from the tree of knowledge, so too do the Farquars feel guilt and confusion about where they stand with Gideon.
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By Doris Lessing
