Blog #2 "Tétiyette and the Devil"

“Tetiyette and the Devil”, recorded as told in Creole by a seventeen-year-old Guadeloupean girl in 1971. The story goes like this. Tétiyette was a child that was hard to please. Everybody that came up to Tétiyette and asked for her hand in marriage were rejected due to them not suiting her taste. Until one day a young, good-looking gentlemen came to see her. Upon meeting young, good-looking gentlemen Tétiyette agreed to marry him. But her mother knew something wasn't right as she knew that there was a devil roaming around the neighborhood. Her mother said "Tétiyette, no man can be that beautiful!" So, her mother gave her a pin and a handkerchief and advised her to stick husband at night after he had fallen asleep. Her mom said if ooze comes out he’s the devil, and if blood comes out he’s human. So that’s exactly what she did, and it resulted in ooze. Shocked by the results Tétiyette washed the handkerchief and stuck herself with the pin. The next morning, she showed her mom her blood stains on the handkerchief and said "You see, I didn't lie to you. There's the blood!" and her mother was pleased. Several nights later the devil started to eat her. Tétiyette cried out for help. She cried out for her mother, but there was no answer. She cried out for her father, but her father didn't care because he had already warned her. Lastly, she called for she brother. Being worried about Tétiyette he woke up his mother. "As far as I'm concerned, I had also warned her to beware" is what the women said as her daughter, Tétiyette, was being eaten by the devil. But thanks to her brother he cut opened the devil’s stomach and saved Tétiyette.

I feel as if the author of the story relies two things in the story. That is "Mother knows best and don’t judge a book by its cover”. Mother knows best is something we have all heard before whether we liked it or not. There are times in our life especially when we're teens when we want to make our own decisions. In the beginning, we become stubborn and my feel as if they’re just trying to control us, but, they’re protecting us from getting ourselves into situations that could possible harm us. The author demonstrates this in the story when Tétiyette’s mother tell her somethings not right about the man she married. Although she took her mother’s advice to confirm that her husband was the devil, she also lied to her mother claiming that he was human. In which caused to her to get eaten by the devil.  Finally, don’t judge a book by its cover. Judging someone based off their looks is something with have all done even if we don’t admit it. While in the story, Tétiyette married the devil based of him dressing in beautiful clothes, wearing gold, and wearing his best suit. Well looks aren’t always what they seem, and she had learned that the hard way after she married him. I believe that these two things were written in the story to be a lesson for all of us in real life.