Tetiyette and the devil

The author of Tetityette and the devil was a young Guadeloupean girl who wrote this narrative as a common tradition of theirs called a funeral tale. The message of this narrative is all about being in a toxic relationship but it is told as a fairy tale. It starts off with “once upon a time” which for leads the audience to perceive that it will be a light hearted fairy tale with the typical happy ending. In reality it was a rather gruesome story between a young girl and her suitor. Considering who the author is i believe she might have been telling something from experience. The young girl in the story was even younger than the author. Even though this was a rather dark story the author uses literary devices to give it the fairytale effect. For example when Tetityette was crying out for help each time she repeated “Bel-air Drum” (pg 3 Tetityette).

This was an example of analepsis, which puts emphasis on it. A bel-air drum is a representation of a guadeloupen fertility ritual. I this relates to the message of a toxic relationship in the sense that although the passage states the “devil” is eating her, it could represent the spouse sexually abusing the main character. Being in a position of an abusive relationship it can be consuming and overwhelming for the victim. Furthermore the narrative could also addresses how a relationship could get to that point. The main character didn’t want to be with the other suitors who wanted her because of how they looked but she naively fell into the devil’s trap by his good looks (pg2). I think the message in that comes down to how the the devil knows your weaknesses and knows how to draw you in if you are not careful. In the story the author made wrote Tetityette go against the advice of her family and ignore the red flags that the relationship she was in was the wrong one. Her mother told her how to clearly find out who he truly was and Tetityette followed through but still stuck by him. That reflects the message of how sometimes when someone is in a unhealthy relationship it is hard to get out of the relationship because you are in love. Over all the ending follows the typical fairytale with the Man coming to save the day and rescue the “damsel in distress” and everything was happy in the end. I think the author’s overall purpose was to in a story-telling way warn other young women of the dangers of getting into the wrong relationship. The audience of the narrative although technically is for funerals and adults, i think the audience for this piece is for young unwed women. This story could help other carribean women because of the underlying lessons and that is why it is a great story to put in this collection Green cane juicy flotsam. The point of the book Green cane juicy flotsam is to share the stories of the lives of Caribbean women from Caribbean women and this story of Tetityette does just that.