While reading this portion of the book, I gained a lot of clarity on many issues regarding the “caco” women; more generally women living painful lives which spurs from a troubled past. In the earlier portions of the book I sympathized only with Sophie and slightly despised her mother as I thought ; how could she have gone through such a horrible experience herself and still turned around and put her own daughter through the same thing, but while reading this section I realized that Martine was probably suffering the most of all the caco women, so much so that her past became such an heavy burden that it consumed her and resulted in her death. Although Sophie had her own struggles with her past she was lucky to  be educated more than the rest of the other women, and was making improvements in therapy and her sexual phobia group. Although it’s sad that Martine got consumed by the pain of her past and ended up killing herself and her unborn Child, the repetition of freedom was the thing that stood out to me the most from this section, which made me to think that her death signified a lot of freedom for her, so in a sense she is better off than the rest of the other women.

While reading this portion of the text it felt good knowing that Sophie was still happy in her relationship, despite not liking her body at the moment due to the repercussion of pregnancy, and not necessarily enjoying sex because of the  pain she feels. It seem as thoughe Joseph remained being the true gentleman he declared himself to be in the earlier parts of the book. The thing I found most interesting from reading this portion of the book was how atie’s character had changed, which is what I think attributed to how well she aged; Sophie described her as looking the same way that she looked, before she left for new York. Atie now had a best friend by the name of Louise, she was going out more, drinking, and most surprisingly she learned how to read. This to me means she became much more braver and began taking risks which resulted in her living a more fulfilling life.

While reading this portion of the book, I noticed a lot of growth and bravery in Sophie’s character. I also noticed a change in Martines character as well which I think spurred from the fact that She noticed, that Sophie was changing; which is something she feared. Sophie who was now 18 was in a relationship with a man who was the same age as her mother ( which personally to me doesnt seem that old based on today’s standards, given the fact that Martine had Sophie at a young age), Even though she was extremely afraid of letting her mother find out. After Martine found out and began running “finger” tests on her, upon hearing that her boyfriend was leaving for good she defied her mother by taking her own virginity, so she could be with him, in doing so she displayed a huge amount of bravery in choosing what she wants over what others want for her. Martine’s character also went through changes as well; despite being more of a “modern” parent, in the way that she talks to Sophie explicitly on matters concerning the world, as opposed to sophies aunt who tried to shield her from the harshness of the world by sugar coating everything, she ends up resorting to doing the same “finger tests” on her daughter that her mom did to her and her sister; this practice isn’t  something one would associate with a modern “sophisticated” person.

In  this portion of the book we see Sophie coming to America and getting adjusted into the new life with her mom. She’s still missing her aunt back home but her mom is helping her to understand everything about their lives by telling her things about the things that she and autie went through while growing up. Two of the key moments that stood out to me the most from this reading was; when Martine was explainining the severe measures her mother would take to ensure that her and autie were still virgins, when they were younger, this gave me a preview of how strict her mom was. Another part that stood out to me was when Martine revealed that she got raped at the the age of 16, which is how she got pregnant with Sophie, this stood out to me because it showed that despite her mom’s attempts to protect them from the world  she couldn’t protect them from everything and this I believe had a huge impact on both autie and martine’s life.

in the beginning of the book the, the portion that I read, the main characters at this point are Sophie, her aunt, Atie and her mom, who we haven’t met as yet, Martine. For all her life Sophie was raised by her aunt Atie, who couldn’t read, and also had no interest in learning how to, as she thought she was too old to learn. Atie who cared a great deal for her neice seem to constantly be fighting with herself to maintain an aunt and neice relationship with her neice, as she is careful not to let Sophie view her as her mother; this was one of the most significant moments from the text, because although she is the only mother figure Sophie actually knows, it seems like out of respect for her sister, she didn’t want to make it seem as if she wanted to steal her daughter away. Another significant moment was Sophie’s dream; where she would dream of herself being chased by her mother, who at one point snatched her away before her aunt could save her; this was significant because I think it’s the authors way of giving us a preview of the tribulation? That lies ahead in Sophie’s life.

at the end of this portion of the book, i felt as though everything came back around full circle, which i think the author did intentionally as it made the story more cohesive. a few  things that stuck out to me from these chapters were; the fact that tituba was able to become pregnant again, after all she had endured and at her age, and also the fact that unlike her other pregnancy ,with john Indian, this time she really wanted to have the baby, so much so that she tried to get the maroons to revolt against the slave owners in hopes of creating a better world for her daughter to grow up in; this to me showed some amount of growth in her character, because throughout the book she would always complain about how terrible things were, but at the same time she kinda just accepted her fate. she even chose to kill her unborn child over revolting their oppression, and now ironically she developed a more militant attitude in hopes of protecting another unborn child. This change in her character can also be viewed as a reflection of the men in her life because before when she was with john Indian, who acted like a pacifist and was more concerned about his own survival, she wasn’t as militant as she was toward the end of the book when she was around Christopher, the maroon leader and her son/lover, with whom she had a weird relationship,both of these men were more rebellious than john Indian.Lastly the hanging theme was always present throughout the book; It started with the hanging of tituba’s mother, which is why i think the author found it fitting to end it with the hanging of tituba.

what stood out to me the most from reading this portion of the text was the fact that upon returning to Barbados tituba didn’t visit the jew, that benjamin told her to look for when she arrived there; this was significant because it showed that despite the fact that benjamin treated her extremely nicely, compared to her other slave owners, and looked out for her, even granted her freedom she this wasn’t enough for her to go look up some stranger; not knowing what to expect, she much rather to stick to her “own kind”  because the idea of fitting in and feeling accepted by them was much more important to her.I think this helped the authors main goal by showing that tituba always felt connected and was always loyal to her own people. Another significant moment was when she was having a conversation with the maroon people and they seemed very surprised at the idea of her using her powers to help the “wicked” people, despite the fact that she did not answer, this is significant because it shows how naive tituba was before she had came to the same realization earlier on in the book; that using her powers to help the “wicked” was probably not  the best idea.

When reading this portion of the text i noticed growth in titubas personality, she became more cautious about the things she said which i beleive was a result of the tribulations she had to endure throughout her life; after meeting hester,her cell mate, she didn’t readily start discussing her life and what she had gone through, even after hearing about hester’s problems she still didn’t  reveal who she was. She was concious of of the fact that she always made friends too easily in the past ;This is the first time in the book I’ve seen her exercise this caution. Eventually she gave in and her and Hester became great friends. I believe Hester was the type of woman tituba wanted to be; she was a fighter, educated, and also a feminist, these strong characteristics that Hester embodied had a lasting impression on tituba,which is what I think led her to start standing up for herself.

in this portion of the text, we see tituba face even more tribulations than before; her suspicion about Abigail an the other little girls finally came through, as they, managed to corrupt Betsy’s mind and turn her against tituba. Tho it was very unfortunate to see everyone turn on tituba the way they did, including Elizabeth and betsy, whom she went to great to great lengths to ensure their safety at all times, I believe it was needed as this helped her to see that no matter how closely attached she got to a white person, child or adult, at the end of the day they all viewed her in the same eyes , as nothing but a lesser being to themselves. Tituba herself realizes this toward the end of chapter 10 ; “how naive i had been to not know that to do good to the evil and weak is the same as doing evil “, and i believe this gave her a new perspective on how things were.

I tutuba pg. 5 to 9

While reading this portion of the book I felt like the author was placed in a lot of situations where she was torn with, wanting to do the right thing, but at the same time yearning for the possibilities that would’ve been possible if she wasn’t in the situation she was in. We see this in the scene where she kills her unborn child and how she spike of it haunting her afterwards, even though she had a good reason behind doing it. Also when she constantly feels a bad “energy” from Abigail and the other two girls, but still recognizes the innocence in her as a child. I think this adds to the “witch” aspect of the text because witches are believed to be individuals who possess magical powers and are constantly placed into situations where they have to make difficult decisions; of either doing what is right or doing what needs to be done for the greater good.