The Witch Of Blackbird Pond

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1958

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-17

Chapters 18-21

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

The Meadow

The Great Meadow is an expanse of open grassland on the outskirts of Wethersfield. It appears frequently in the book as a symbol of freedom and authentic experience that speaks to the theme of listening to one’s heart. The space seems to exert a powerful influence on those people who can hear its call for personal liberation.

Initially, Hannah and her husband were drawn to the place shortly after they were driven out of Massachusetts. Their alternative religious beliefs set them at odds with the intolerant Puritans of the area. Their deviance from the norm implies that they don’t share superficial values with other New Englanders. As a result, the meadow speaks to them.

When Kit first sets eyes on the place, she is reminded of how she used to feel when she still lived in Barbados. The meadow reconnects her with a sense of freedom. The meadow’s stark contrast to the constricted life she is forced to endure within the human community of Wethersfield causes her to weep. Again, the meadow has drawn someone who possesses the capacity to listen to their heart.

Kit later learns that Nat had a similar initial encounter with the meadow as a boy. The parallel experience implies that the two young people share the same values. Even little Prudence finds her way to the meadow and blossoms under the kindly influence of Hannah, Kit, and Nat. Significantly, whenever Judith walks past the meadow, she barely notices the place. She belongs to the world of conformity and proper behavior, so the meadow’s magic is lost on her. Not so for the members of Hannah’s inner circle. All of them know the secret truths that only the heart can tell.

Houses or Sailing Ships

Both houses and sailing ships occur at frequent intervals in the novel. These objects act in counterpoint to one another as symbols of stability versus freedom. They emphasize Kit’s dilemma of being caught between two worlds. When Kit arrives in America, she travels on a merchant ship called the Dolphin. During her journey, she meets Nat, and the two experience a mutual attraction. Unlike all the other passengers, Kit enjoys the journey and even proves her seaworthiness by demonstrating that she can swim.

Sadly, the freedom she feels on the ship is about to be curtailed by the grim Puritans of Wethersfield, who do nothing but toil and pray. William Ashby is less forbidding than most of the people in the town, and his offer of marriage tempts Kit. She hates living in her uncle’s home, but William’s house becomes a symbol of the suffocatingly conventional life in store for Kit if she marries him. William spends most of his time planning the new house for his bride. He talks about all the construction details until Kit is bored to tears. While William is focused on material comforts, and he could certainly provide Kit with an easy life, all these benefits are superficial.

The book contains a confrontation between the ship and the house during Nat’s Halloween prank. He and a group of sailors put lit pumpkins in the window openings of William’s unfinished house, making a mockery of the project. Tellingly, Kit finds the joke very amusing while the rest of her family does not. Nat’s gesture highlights the silliness of William’s elaborate plan for a comfortable life. Wisely, Kit opts for a life of adventure with Nat instead.

Reading

In the novel, reading symbolizes intellectual liberty. The act of reading occurs frequently in a variety of different contexts that invite censure from the solemn Puritans because literacy, especially for females, threatens their fundamentalist values. Reading for pleasure relates to the theme of intolerance and is generally condemned as ungodly. The earliest example occurs when Kit reads one of John’s religious texts even before she leaves the ship. The dry material stands in contrast to the fictional material that her grandfather’s library contained. Kit has read widely in her young life and has been exposed to all sorts of ideas that don’t square with Puritan morality. John is mildly shocked, but Kit’s uncle is outraged that she has read plays. These, in particular, are considered the work of the devil.

Kit’s reading skills get her into trouble at a later point when she teaches at the dame school. Her attempt to introduce imagination and joy into the learning process nearly gets her fired. Of course, the greatest punishment is reserved for her efforts to teach Prudence to read. Both the hornbook containing the alphabet and the copybook displaying the little girl’s name are used against Kit as evidence that she is a witch. Ironically, it is Prudence’s ability to read that ends up saving the day. When the child is able to read a passage from the Bible, she proves that her learning is of a godly nature. Further, Prudence’s father is impressed with his daughter’s sharp intellect. He contrasts the child’s behavior with his wife’s ignorant superstitions. The novel implies that the illiterate citizens of Wethersfield might all benefit from learning to read, since it might eliminate their narrow-mindedness.