The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Reaction Paper

The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Reaction Paper by Nehemiah

“Do not judge or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” - Matthew 7:1-2. 

In the book The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Kit Tyler and Hannah Tupper were judged by the town and were accused of being witches. But the truth is, neither of them were actually witches, they were perfectly normal people. Kit and Hannah proved that they were normal people and not witches through the fact that they were both very kind and loving. The townspeople thought that they had practiced witchcraft, but, truthfully, they did not. There were some other reasons why the townspeople thought they were witches. But each of the townspeople’s accusations had a reasonable explanation as to why the women acted like that. 

At the beginning of the book, Kit, a lonely teenage girl, had lived with her grandfather her whole life, in Barbados, a tropical island in the Carribeans. She lived there up until her grandfather died.  Then she was forced to either marry an older, rich, rotten man, or go to Connecticut to live with the only family she had left, which was her aunt, uncle, and her two cousins. Kit made the decision to move to Connecticut. After a long voyage, Kit finally landed in the small, puritan town of Wethersfield, Connecticut. Once she took a quick Look around, Kit realized that this new life she was stepping into would be a lot different than her previous way of living. Kit compared herself to a tropical bird that had flown to the wrong part of the world. Kit’s first couple of months in Connecticut were some of the hardest ones of her life as she was pushed to the limit physically and mentally. 

Kit soon found that she enjoyed relaxing in the meadows around her uncle’s house, and would spend most of her free time out in the fields. This is how she found out about the “witch”. One of Kit’s cousins had pointed out the house of Hannah Tupper, who was thought to be a witch. Hannah and her husband were both Quakers. So when her husband died, the town only saw an old Quaker widow. Because of this and other reasons, they assumed Hannah was a witch. One day, after being yelled at by her uncle, Kit ran off to the fields to cry. While she was crying there, Hannah Tupper came to her and invited Kit to her house. Even though Kit knew her relatives wouldn’t approve, she went to Hannah’s house. After this encounter, Kit secretly started meeting with Hannah at her house. Once the townspeople found out about their meetings, they accused both Hannah and Kit of witchcraft. But the truth is that neither of them were actually witches. 

The first reason they weren’t witches is that they were both very kind and loving people, not wanting to harm anybody. The definition of witch according to the Oxford English Dictionary is “A person (in later use typically a woman) who practices witchcraft or magic, especially of a malevolent or harmful nature.” Neither Kit nor Hannah had harmful nature or intentions. In fact, there are many instances where Kit and Hannah's kindness is shown. When Kit and Hannah met it was a display of Hannah’s loving heart. Hannah was loving to take Kit to her house and comfort her when Kit wasn’t feeling great emotionally. Later Kit showed kindness to Prudence, a little girl in town who had a similar situation as Kit. She helped Prudence learn to read and write. Kit even took Prudence to Hannah to teach her, even though Kit knew it could put her in a bad situation. These are just two of the examples of the Womens’ loving hearts. Witches are usually people with harmful intentions. Kit and Hannah did not have harmful intentions. They were the opposite, not wanting to harm anyone, therefore, they were not witches. 

Not only were Kit and Hannah kind and loving, they also didn't practice any witchcraft. In that time period, women being able to swim was considered unnatural. Kit hadn’t known this and on her trip to Connecticut she swam to save a child’s toy. Because of this, people were suspicious of Kit before she even started meeting with Hannah. But why she was able to swim wasn't because of any witchcraft, it was simply because she lived in Barbados where swimming was common. Kit used to swim all the time in Barbados. It had nothing to do with witchcraft. A reason people thought Hannah practiced witchcraft was because Hannah’s house was right next to a river and, every once in a while, the river would flood. The water would get so high that people thought Hannah’s house would’ve been flooded. But after every flood, the house would still be intact and Hannah would still be living there. Although she did have to clean up a bit after each flood, the water wouldn’t actually reach her house because her house was built higher than the water would reach. So although the townspeople thought she only survived because of witchcraft, it was actually because of the placement of the house. The townspeople thought that the women were witches and practiced witchcraft. However, the townspeople’s’ suspicions have reasonable and natural explanations, not having to do with witchcraft at all.

Even though there were reasonable explanations for everything Kit and Hannah did, the townspeople still thought they were witches. Hannah was a Quaker and the townspeople were Puritans, not open minded to something different from a Puritan lifestyle. To the Puritans, Quakers only caused trouble wherever they went, speaking out against the Puritan faith. Hannah lived on the outskirts of town in a log cabin by herself with only cats to keep her company. People thought this would be the living situation of a witch. But being a witch isn’t defined by where or how someone lives. It's defined by what they do, whether they practice witchcraft or not, if they have harmful intentions or not. Some of the reasons people thought Kit was a witch is that she could swim, she associated with Hannah, and she “miraculously” taught Prudence to read and write. None of these reasons prove that Kit was a real witch. She could swim because she used to live in Barbados. She associated with Hannah because both of them were lonely and alike. She was able to teach Prudence because Kit was one of the only people that Prudence wasn’t scared of. If someone hadn’t known Kit and Hannah, it would be reasonable to think that they were witches. But the truth is, they weren’t, and if the townspeople had looked at them with an open mind, they would’ve seen that. 

The people in the town mistreated and misjudged Kit and Hannah because they thought the women were witches, even though there is proof otherwise. Two of the main reasons they weren’t witches are that they were both very kind and loving and that they didn’t practice any witchcraft. There were many examples of when people thought the women were witches, but all of those examples have a reasonable explanation of why the women actually acted like that. It is important not to judge someone because of how something seems. 1 Samuel 16:7 says “People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” This verse reminds us to not just look at someone and judge them right away, but to actually get to know them and understand them before making assumptions about them. The Bible says, in Matthew 7 “Do not judge others or you too will be judged.” In conclusion, people shouldn’t judge each other, especially when important details aren’t completely known about each other.