The Caribbean has many influential writers, from all over the region, this story from the collection titled “Contes de mort et de vie aux Antilles”, is written by an anonymous 17- year old girl and originates from the island of Guadeloupe. Tetiyette and the Devil is narrated during a traditional wake of a funeral, which in their culture are what we would consider extraordinarily long, sometimes lasting more than 24 hours. Stories from this region typically show characteristics of their French and African roots. This story is a perfect example as it was recorded originally in Creole, which is a mixture of English, French, and African languages.
Tetiyette and the
Devil is an interesting story that teaches the audience a lesson that is
very valuable. In my opinion, the author uses literary and spiritual text to
help get her point across. With a mixture of poetry and prose, repetition and
narration, this story is one that is easily remembered and easy to follow. The
tale is a lesson for all people, especially young women, that even if someone
looks great, that does not mean that they are a good person. When the first suitor of young Tetiyette approach, “The young girl came out, picked up the
most beautiful of her silver cups and gave the goat to drink from it” (narrator,
page 1). When the goat had left, the mother informed Tetiyette that the goat
wished to marry her. Her response was a rejection based on the fact that the
goat “ate grains” (Tetiyette, page 1). From the choice of the author to
describe the man as a goat, we can infer that the setting is somewhere rural
because these animal metaphors are drawn from common experience. We get an
image of what this man must have looked like, maybe athletic, tall, but did not
meet all of the vain requirements of the young girl. Next, there was a pig that
came by asking for water just as the goat had done. This time Tetiyette does
not even come out to greet the pig, her mother gives him the same silver cup as
the goat and the pig asked to see her daughter. Mother called to her, “Tettiyette,
Tetiyette, a pig is asking for you, a pig is asking for you” (Mother, page 2)
and once again, the young girl rejects this pigs request. The metaphor of the
pig gives the audience a vivid picture of a man that may be overweight, sloppy,
smelly, not appealing to look at, everything the girl thinks is important. The third suitor to come by was a devil that had been wanting to harm the girl for
a long time. He dressed up in all the nicest clothes and jewelry and paid
Tetiyette a visit. The young girl looked at him and was pleased with his
beautiful appearance and immediately asked him to come upstairs and join her. He
asked her to marry him and she accepted because he was great looking. After
they were married, one night the devil started eating her up, and she cried out
for help,
The man to whom you married me, Bel-air drum!
Is a terrible devil! Bel-air drum!
He’s eating me up! Bel-air drum!” (Tetiyette, page 3)
The use of this repetition acts as a filler in the flow of
the story and the wording provides a rhythmic essence to it that creates a pattern
for the audience. The unique combination between the prose creates a very
interesting structure to the story and helps the reader to focus differently on
the different types of writing, providing a universal way of reading the story.
In my opinion this is a very literary
way to tell a story that communicates the timeless lesson of “Do not judge a
book by its cover”.
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