As I continued reading the novel, I Tituba, I found John Indians character to be disgraceful. Tituba was very fond of John Indian; she was in love with him. The way that Tituba described to find peace, and confinement in John Indian through the bitter life she lived, it made me fond of John Indian as well. I liked the way that I thought sweet Tituba finally had someone almost like herself who gave her the love she always deserved. However, I was soon shown to be wrong about my admiration for John Indian. For when Tituba was locked away in jail for being a “Witch” John Indian lost all interest for Tituba. It made me question if John Indian truly loved Tituba and if her just simply kept her around for his very own pleasures of sexual interest. Throughout reading the book I did always get the sense that is hard for slaves to love another. For their entire life has been them being controlled, and them being betrayed. So it shown through the characters of John Indian, who had us all fooled.

Even though Tituba was free she went into slavery because of love. She keep doing things for love and they keep failing her. She went into slavery for John Indian because she loved him. John soon showed disloyalty. Just like what Mama Yaya an Abena said “she was going to pay for it ; He’s no good for you.” Tituba continues to bring up what her mother says also about why women can’t live without men. Tituba meets Hester while in prison. All of the people arrested with Tituba are either being released or have died. Tituba tells Hester her story about leaving the free world for love and I realized that she is still defending John Indian. Later on she finds out that Hester has hung herself and is in disbelief. Tituba says “Hester, Hester, why didn’t you wait for me?“. I feel bad for Tituba being that she sacrificed her freedom for someone that she thought could rescue her through everything and comfort her is not here now.

Here Tituba meets Hester.

Hester’s character is very interesting and Tituba obviously bonds with her. What makes her so different is the fact that Hester defies all of the constraints of society with her rebellious personality. She’s goes as far as saying “Its not her society”, and calls herself an outcast. Although her outcast title comes from the fact that she had a mind of her own and was very opinionated, she was an outcast none the less just like Tituba.

Of course adultery is an extreme act, especially in those days, but Hester doesn’t cower in the face of her punishment. She also seems to despise men – saying that their gender seems to give them special privileges, which was true. Her ways may seem like feminism, and even though mentioned in the book, her ‘feminsm’ then is normal rights for women today. And can you really blame Hester for her thought process? Because she seemed to be raised in a family that thought women and men should be equals – which was something very different for the times.

One of the things that most caught my attention in this part of the story. Is that this talk about how women had a lower status in society regardless of whether the woman was a slave. Also in this part is talk about terms like “feminism”. Also this part is peculiar because it is showing a Tituba who feels insecure worried and even frightened, since she feels that she lost her family support that helped in some way to keep fighting for her ideals. But most important, I think, it is that Tituba learns to follow the advice of people in order to get a rematch against those who put in jail. And this is interesting because she believes in a woman which barely knows and this is estrane because when her own husband tells her to do the same. She does not listen to him

The reading that is most interesting now is we are finally seeing the true side of John Indian, he is now in full blown survival mode, and acting very selfish all he has on his mind is self-preservation. John Indian is now acting as if he is being tormented by spirits and is calling the names of others including his wife Tituba and finally she is seeing the words of Abena and Mama Yaya coming true. They told her he would bring her trouble, now she realizes that Hester was correct about him too. After she spoke to him in the barn where she was shackled up and he realize tituba feelings for him has started to change she never saw him again. Also tituba found out that Hester hanged herself. This was a devastating blow to tituba’s heart, she lost the last person she could have absolutely confided in.

One part that I think is worth discussing is when Hester starts to talk about John Indian being no good and then Tituba still defends him. Even though this is all happening to her because of him. Then later on I feel like she starts to realize that he is the reason she is in this mess.

Another worthy point is how this book connects to the scarlet letter. Hester commits adultery in the scarlet letter and Tutiba gets to talk to her. Which the story of Tutiba seem more realistic.

Anthony Lawrence