“Tetiyette and the Devil” Analysis - Revised

“Tetiyette and the Devil” is a short story that gives the message of, “Not everything that glitters is gold.” The author effectively conveys this message by showing us how Tetiyette reacts to men who are both immediately attractive to her and immediately unattractive to her. The first two men she meets are compared to a goat and a pig, and both of these comparisons give us the impression that these men aren’t visually attractive. These men who aren’t conventionally attractive represent the things in life that we have to search deeper for; this takes more work but it’s worth it in the end. When Tetiyette shoos both of them away, the author is showing us how easily humans often judge things based off of what they see on the surface. This is already starting to show what the moral of the story could be, because she turns down two men simply because of their looks. We see further into this lesson when the devil is introduced to the story. He comes dressed in fine clothing and makes himself very visually appealing, therefore Tetiyette is immediately more attracted to him. She exclaims, “Have him come up! Have him come up! I want him!” (2), but she knows nothing about what the devil is like as a person. This is ultimately where her problem starts, because she becomes involved with a man who she knows nothing about. She accepts his proposal to marry her before even getting to know him. She also ignores her mother’s warnings and covers for him when she finds out that he’s really a devil. This represents the trait in all of us that always wants to give into someone or something just because it looks nice. By making the antagonist in this story a devil, the author conveys just how bad a situation like this could be if we allow ourselves to fall into these traps. This also gives the lesson that we shouldn’t let ourselves be blinded by nice things, because Tetiyette let herself be blinded by the devil’s appearance and completely ignored the fact that he was a devil. This story has a perfect message for young girls who may be in Tetiyette’s position, and could be starting the phase in their lives where they are starting to experience romantic attraction. “Tetiyette and the Devil” provides them with a metaphorical example of what could happen when you go into a relationship without really getting to know the person first. The story allows young girls to understand what they should look for not only in partners, but in all other aspects of life.

Little Cog-burt vs Cotton Candy

While "Little Cog-burt" and "Cotton Candy" have similar themes involving mothers and their relationships with their children, but the perspective of each story is very different. "Little Cog-burt" focuses more on a mother instead of her child. What's different about the mother's perspective is that we see the longing that can come from a mother being separated from her child. Moira is torturing herself with thoughts of how her children must be feeling about her leaving, and takes it out on the other kids in Dominica. This story shows us the severity of how the mental health of a mother can be affected by the physical separation of herself from her children. Due to her own thoughts, Moira began taking out her guilt and frustration on the other people around her, and almost drives herself mad. She even goes as far as imagining her children being with her and begging her not to treat the other kids nicely. This is very interesting compared to "Cotton Candy", because "Cotton Candy" shows the mental health of the opposite side. In this story, we see Lola and her mother who are not physically separated, but emotionally separated. This emotional separation that Lola has from her mother shows us how much young women need their mother at a young age, so they are more comfortable at an older age. Lola's mother keeps Lola sheltered for the entirety of her life, which deprives her of the normal experiences other girls her age would be going through. As Lola grows older, she's plagued with thoughts of sexual desires and all the things she could've had. This changes her mental state because she wasn't raised the same way as other girls, and is now tormenting herself with thoughts of things that are unattainable for her. These stories are similar in the way that we are able to see how separation affects families and their mental states, but they're different in the perspective in which we view this and what kind of separation we're observing. I would have loved to see how the separation affected the opposite side in each story (Moira's kids and Lola's mother), or if they even felt the separation. Sometimes a lot of the torment we deal with is created in our own heads, so I think it'd be beneficial to see if the opposite sides had some of the same worries.