The moment from reading this portion of the text that I thought was significant is when Martine commits suicide by stabbing herself in the stomach to get rid of the unwanted pregnancy. She kept mentioning to Sophie that she was going to get rid of it and that she had a plan, personally I am not one for abortion and for her to go about it the way she did was way too extreme.  But we saw a woman who had suffered all her life and wasn’t able to fight anymore and to add to all that mentally she was losing her mind. I felt as though she could have gotten better or improved had she went to see a psychiatrist, but the fear of confronting the past was too much for her to bear and she felt as though she had no way out. I believe that Sophie had the confrontation for herself when she broke away from her mother’s burial and ran to the cane fields, if shows us that Sophie was an even greater fighter than her mother was and that she desired to be free

The significant moment that I found in the reading is when Tante Atie got the leeches for the lump that she had in her calf. She puts the leech on her skin as a means to heal her and stop the pain that she is in by removing her blood. I think that the moment is significant because Sophie witnesses this and she states that she can feel her head spinning and her stomach tuning inside out. I believe this is because she witnessed all the blood that the leeches were sucking out of Tante Atie, it could be that she thinks that all this blood was a waste, as she had wasted her own blood with the pestle. We read early in the text where she herself lost her own blood in a different manner when she used to pestle on herself. Or maybe she looked at the leeches as something small but was able to pull so much blood from Tante atie, in contrast to the pestle that might have seemed to her a small act to inflict on herself but in the end caused huge outcomes as it gave her freedom and the chance for her to be with Joseph.

The significant moment that I found in this part of the reading is when Sophie opens up to her grandmother and tells her what she is going through with her husband. Sophie is saying that she is not enjoying “being” with her husband, I sort of find this moment ironic because the very thing that her mother was trying to keep her from doing she no longer find pleasure in doing even with the freedom of having a husband. Her mother tested her to make sure that she was not touched and remained pure. she believed that it is important for her to keep herself for her husband. Well now she has her husband and she cannot be with him as a wife should.  I believe that this is because of the tests that her mother used to do on her it traumatized her to the point when she dislikes her own body and doesn’t want to share it with her husband. I also think that what she did to herself with the pestle has somehow caused some complications for her. One can say that the mother was correct from the beginning in that if the mother should hear of what Sophie is going through then she would have said I told you so and that she should have listen, that it is Sophie’s decisions that is caused her to feel this way.

The significant moment that I read in the text was the ending of chapter 12. We found out the Sophie’s mother suspects her and begins to test her, just as how her mother used to do to her. Honestly I never knew anything about this kind of testing until I read this book but I suppose that it has to do with culture. I think if you want to know if someone is involved then you ask and accept what they tell you and if you have to test to satisfy your own knowledge of being certain then you lack trust, if I was Sophie then I would not have any trust for that person. Also it is just puzzling why a mother would want to test a 18 year old, she was with her for six years and she never tested her until she expressed her love interest. she kept mentioning that she there is not secret that can be kept for a mother as she found out about Sophie and Joseph. I believe that Sophie wanted so badly to break away from her mother that’s was why she used the Pestle stick,  and I was so confused as to why the mother was so quick to tell Sophie that she could go and be with Joseph after she tested her for the last time and found that she was not the same, as if to say that you are no longer the pure daughter that I wanted to have.

The significant moment that I found in the text was when Sophie finally made it to New York to be with her mother.  I found this moment significant because if finally gave the mother a charter in the book and we also start to get a sense of who she is. It also put into perspectives why she was in New York in the first place, it was to provide her family with a better life though she herself wasn’t living the best of it. She had an old car and the apartment that she lived in was not the cleanest nor the best place to live. I am sure that is not the reality that Sophie was expecting to face when she heard that she was coming to New York. Whatever the mother could do to please her daughter she was willing to do. She kept a doll in place of her daughter for so long it shows that she missed her and longed to have her living with her. overall the moment shows that the mother was hard working and that even though she wasn’t living a lavish life she made a sacrifice for her family as she told Sophie that if she gets an education then they all would’ve won.

The significant moment that I found while reading this book is when Sophie’s mother decided to take her daughter to New York with her. It tells how all the neighbors knew that she was leaving even before she herself even found out that she was leaving Haiti. I believe that they all found out because her aunt Tante Atie could not read so maybe when she got the package she called a neighbor to read for her and that’s how the news spread. One of the reasons I found all this significant is I remember growing up and hearing the stories from my grandparents, mother, aunts and uncles about the struggles that they went through and the many times they didn’t got school or the condition that they went to school in. In those days children didn’t care how they got to school all that matters was that they were getting an education. They would tell me stories of how kids would show up to school barefooted but that it was nothing to be ashamed of because not many of them had shoes to wear. The text is also personal to me because when I went without my mother for six years when she came to the US, I was in my early teens and my sister and I lived with my aunt who like Tante Atie didn’t have kids. I remember when the time came to finally reunite with my mom I couldn’t wait, I was sad to leave behind my aunt and other family and friends however I knew the day would come to be with my mom like old times was the best thing for my family.

The ending of the book was very sad, I did not expect Tituba to die like that and I thought that she would have at least lived to have her baby, who seem to make her so happy which gave her a reason to live and fight, the book didn’t say but I wondered who it was  that had betrayed the slave revolt or how did the planters got wind of what was to happen. The significant moment that I found within this section of reading is when the planters captured Tituba, Iphigene and all the others just before the revolt. I found the moment significant because her invisible spirits could not tell her word for word what would happen even though Yao told her that all previous revolts ended in blood and that it was not their time to act. In a flashback, Tituba, was happy and wrapped up in the arms of Benjamin Cohen the night they burned down his house and killed his children this was the same way that she was wrapped up in the arms of Iphigene when the planters surrounded their hut and burned it down and then took them to the gallows. It was sad to see that the punishments and the accusations that she escaped in Salem were then imposed on her in her beloved island. All this shows the callousness of the plantation owners, they were protecting their lives and well being but to kill a pregnant lady was heart wrenching. I can then say that even though Sir William Phips had freed the witches, in the eyes of many Tituba was still a witch so even though they were not in Salem the planters were very pleased to finally execute her for those crimes.

There were so many interesting points within this portion of reading. The significant moment however that stood out for me is the affair between Benjamin Cohen and Tituba. It started out very innocent as she was just there to help him and the children and take care of the house. She drew my attention when she said “why must any relationship with the slightest hint of affection between a man and a woman necessarily end up in bed?” this affair between them was very risky and had serious consequences as it spiraled into the death of Benjamin Cohen’s children. At one point Tituba mentioned that she would like her freedom and return to her beloved Barbados but Mr. Cohen dismissed it.  I thought this moment was significant as I would like to compare the relationship Tituba had with John Indian and the similarities of the one she shared with Benjamin Cohen. Tituba had given up all that she had and her freedom to be with John Indian. Against the warning of Mama Yaya and Abena her mother she followed her heart and went with John. After Benjamin Cohen’s children were killed in the fire and he and Tituba were being persecuted he proclaims that it must be God that is punishing him for not freeing Tituba and so he makes all the preparations and gives her her freedom, but Tituba insists she wants to stay with him and didn’t want to leave. Once again she has her freedom that she longed for yet in that moment she all she wanted to do was to stay with Benjamin Cohen even if it’s in bondage.

The significant moment that I read was when Tituba and Hester prepared her testimony. This testimony had something to do with what  John Indian told Tituba to do to survive. He told her that whatever names the Puritans wanted that she should give up the names of others whether it was true of false that they were practicing witchcraft.  I wondered to myself as to why Tituba would befriend another person like she did Hester. Hadn’t she learned her lessons from Elizabeth, Betsey and Abigail, how she once cared for them and they turned on her. I found this moment significant because this was the only way Tituba was going get revenge for herself for all that they had done to her. Since she was now captured she could not go out and get herbs to make a potion, make a sacrifice or do any chanting as that would have further sealed her fate. so the only way really was to get a revenge and give up the names of those that had wronged her. This led to a bigger turmoil as it seems the entire village of Salem started to turn on each other and everyone started to suspect their neighbor. All this I felt as though one should have given up the names of a few of the ministers so they too could suffer for there cruel acts.

An interesting point that I found in the text so far is when Samuel Parris accuses Tituba of bewitching Betsy and Abigail and saying that she has been fooling around with the Satan. Prior to this earlier we see where a lot more people seem to be aware that Tituba has a special kind of gift. Sarah the slave of the Joseph Henderson asks Tituba to do something to her masters because of the way have been treating her. Goodwife Rebecca Nurse also wanted Tituba to do something about Houltons whose hogs destroyed her garden. what they wanted Tituba to do seemed good in their eyes but it was for and evil intent and Tituba wanted to resave the right to use her powers for good. She felt that she had done enough for Goodwife Parris and Betsy, but it turns out that the minute that the children started to get sick that she was a person of interest. It would seem as though Tituba was always in their radar and this is evident when Samuel Parris called her one morning to ask her what she had done to the kids, they could not see that the children were clearly faking it., or had cause something on their own selves by being a little too adventurous. I found this passage significant because the consequences of Tituba actions were very clear to her. It makes me wonder why she had befriended the girls so much and went as far as to shared so much of her secrets. All the good that she had done for them was now building evidence against her and she knew that she might be hanged as we saw with Goody Glover.