“Daddy Issues”: a Psychoanalytic Reading of I, Tituba, Black With of Salem
Critic Question: Can Tituba’s actions be explained by the dynamics of her childhood—specifically her relationship with her birth mother as well as the absence of a relationship with her father?
One recurring theme in Maryse Condé’s novel I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem is the oppression placed on Tituba. One may be quick to assume that her misfortune is due to her skin color and gender; however, there may be more to it. Tituba has quite the adversity placed on her during her childhood and it is in these events and relationships in which her future is shaped. The psychological toll of having a mother that does not love her child as well as the absence of a father can not be overlooked when discussing why Tituba made certain choices. Tituba’s childhood familial dynamics result in her desire for attention, naive decisions, and unhealthy relationships with others with the consequence of her physical and emotional abuse.
Due to a lack of strong relationships with her birth parents, Tituba’s feelings of isolation cause her to become desperate for attention and susceptible to mistreatment. At the early stages of her life, Tituba’s only parental figure is her birth mother, Abena, who despises her because of how she is conceived—rape. Abena’s distaste for Tituba is described as Tituba recounts, “I never stopped reminding my mother of the white sailor who had raper her… I constantly reminded her of the pain and humiliation. So whenever I used to cuddle up to her… she would inevitably push me away” (Condé 6). Growing up, Tituba has no love in her life and grows up believing she has no protection, causing a pursuit for acceptance that follows her throughout the novel. With the addition of two loving parental figures in her life—Yao and Mama Yaya—this unhealthy desire was threatened by their love for Tituba. However, their tragic deaths deepen this search as Tituba gets a taste of what it feels like to be loved right before it is taken away from her. Therefore, when Tituba finds the first person that displays even the tiniest of interest in Tituba—John Indian—she immediately is drawn to him (Condé 15). She becomes dependent on him and conforms to his ways in an effort to feel the sense of love she felt with Yao and Mama Yaya. Furthermore, this dependence translates to both physical and emotional abuse as John Indian does not reciprocate the love and attention Tituba gives him and betrays her several times.
Tituba’s naive choices throughout the text are the catalyst for the abuse she endures, all as a result of her childhood relationships. A British study in 2013 found that the loss of a loved one at a young age can cause a negative impact on their “trust, relationships, self-esteem, feeling of self-worth, loneliness and isolation and the ability to express feelings” (Ellis, Dowrick, and Lloyd-Williams 3). With the bereavement of everyone that was close to Tituba, and the consequently lack of love in her life, Tituba develops with seemingly all of the issues described in the experiment. Primarily, the feelings of a lack of self-worth and loneliness is evident in Tituba’s decision to flee her life of freedom and isolation for a life of slavery in order to be with a man she has shared a relatively small amount of time with (Condé 25). With the absence of advice from parental figures, with the exception of questionable comments from her spiritual aides, Tituba lacks the judgement to make wise decisions. As a result, she is abused physically and emotionally by the toll of slavery, imprisonment, abortion, and even rape.
The absence of a strong father figure in Tituba’s life induces destructive relationships—mostly sexual—that end with pain and suffering. In a research paper by Jocelyn Romero, the author describes one category of relationships women without a father figure may have—“The multi-faceted arena of relationships”—which is described as “the type of relationships where women who don’t have a sense of validation for themselves tend to look for it by having sex with men until they think they found the ‘right’ one that makes them feel accepted” (Romero). Because Tituba developed without having a strong paternal figure, it can be assumed that she engages in various meaningless sexual encounters due to the fact that she lacks the confidence given to a women by her father. Throughout the novel, Tituba’s relationships with the men she has sexual intercourse with result in harm and abuse. Her first relationship with John Indian sets the default effect of her encounters with men as she gives herself away to him without an ounce of love returned (Condé 23). Throughout her life, she is reminded of this obsession with John Indian through other abusive men and her numerous sexual encounters, causing a lifetime of emotional and physical pain. In the case of Christopher, Tituba seeks gratification in a man who does not have any desire to love her the way she needs to be loved once again as Christopher betrays her in the end (Condé 153). This rejection prompts the “maroons” to become antagonistic toward Tituba and as she becomes more alienated, she leaves her life the same way she was brought into it: in isolation.
The suffering Tituba endures throughout her lifetime is a result of her aspiration for attention, lack of judgement, and ruinous sexual encounters prompted by her childhood. While the misfortune Tituba endures throughout her life undoubtedly has roots in her skin color and gender, the psychological effects of the adversity she encountered as a child are arguably more influential on her fate. Sigmund Freud once said “unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.” The emotions triggered by the tragedies Tituba faces as a child never die as the catastrophic events shape her destiny from the beginning. Thus, while loosely based on history, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem serves as a testimony to the importance of ones childhood and parental relationships on their future and success as an individual.