The short story of Tetiyette and the Devil's background is based on the island in Guadeloupe. In the Caribbean, specifically in Guadeloupe, the people often share these stories through the word of the mouth also what are known as "oral traditions".Oral traditions is a focal point of the culture. Their stories have been passed on through generations and now have been transcribed. But with this specific story, "Tetiyette and the Devil" what was the overall message being portrayed?
The story has various elements in which it helps get the story's message across to the audience. Even in the beginning of the story, you can identify common themes without interpreting anything. For example, the line "Once upon a time there was a woman who had only one girl-child.",the author used a very common line used in folk and fairy tales to keep the listeners engaged and to introduce the main characters. Another element included is repetition. This is also common in the fairy tales such as "The Three Little Pigs" and "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". In the story, a goat would come up and ask to marry Tetiyette and she would refuse and the same thing happens when a pig approaches her, she would refuse them immediately up until the devil came up to her. The use of repetition in stories helps the audience stay attentive to see if anything will change if it happens again. Not only that, but the use of descriptive and figurative language really helps accentuate the overall topic of the story. Story lines such as "he decked himself in gold" and "he climbed up the staircase, twenty steps at at time.", have a figurative language incorporated in them. It is very unlikely that a human can climb up that many stairs at a time. They use that exaggeration to keep the story interesting as you contemplate if that can actually be possible or not. That is one of the beauty of story-telling. Another interesting element is the fact that the story includes poetry. When written in the book, the writing is in a stanza-like format. However, remind you that these stories were originally orally told so lines such as "Oh Mama! Oh Mama! Bel-air drum!" were most likely chanted through spoken word. In relation to the culture, Guadeloupe has a dance called bel-air and use percussion instruments such as the drum, so just by looking at that line alone can be portrayed a new way and have a whole new meaning.Now that we have seen many ways the message was portrayed the audience,what exactly is the message and who is the audience? Well, originally, oral stories like this were told by male storytellers at funerals which could last days and the main audience would be adults. However, this story in particular was told by a seventeen year old Guadeloupean girl. As far as the purpose and message, there appears to many we can decipher. However, one specifically, is don't be blinded by what's in front of you. When the devil approached Tetiyette wearing his finest gold, she was not hesitant to marry him at first glance.She completely disregarded the fact that he was the devil, who is synonymous with being wicked and mischievous, but instead payed attention to what he had on. Expensive and shiny things such as gold, are common to attract people and is and indication of being wealthy so that factor made Tetiyette quick to marry him. Then the moment they get married, the devil was eating her up until nothing was left except for half a toe. Why would you want to marry a devil? The word "evil" is literally in the name. It's because of the fact that she was so shallow, she even deceived her mother, knowing that he was the devil and how there can be consequences from marrying him she still went through with it. It seems like the devil knew that dressing up in his finest suit and gold would make Tetiyette instantly marry him.I guess all that glitters is not gold.
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