Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery

“Joseph must understand that his sins are condemned by all. It is not always easy, and yes, it can be cruel, but it is the only way. If one parent punishes the child for his poor behavior, only to have the other give him comfort for his years, then the lesson is undermined and the family unity put in jeopardy.”

Reverend Carter’s explanation of why an old man must be made to sit in shackles outside of the church for falling asleep during service demonstrates the extremity and cruelty of Sutton’s society. The Reverend’s metaphor about the church being like a family also speaks to the psychology of control in Sutton: if churchgoers are asked to see themselves as being part of a “family,” then they are immediately part of a system that enacts top-down authority.

“Oh, to be a man just this one day, Abi thought. How I’d put that lout in his place.”

Even at this early stage in the novel, Abitha has a clear-eyed understanding of the power imbalance that exists between genders. Her (joking) desire to “be a man” also speaks to her desire to transgress this balance.

“‘What will it be tonight, Edward?’

He handed her The Faerie Queen by Edmund Spenser.

‘Ah, I love that one.’”

This allusion to Edmund Spenser’s epic poem reinforces the association between Abitha and the titular queen. Abitha expresses to Samson that, as a child, she wished to be a fairy queen. This suggests that Abitha wanted to be a woman like the “queene” from the poem—a just, widely-admired ruler. Abitha’s arc over the course of the novel reveals this ambition to be too fanciful to be true to life.

“Angels must often do dark deeds in the name of the Lord.”

Lord Mayhew’s words to Wallace underscore the hypocrisy of patriarchy—a hypocrisy that is known by those who are committing it. The religious metaphor also speak to the ways in which power in this society is inextricably connected to the Puritan church’s control.

“No, no soul was ever more at peace with herself, with nature, with God. And I never witnessed her do naught that were wicked. She died of the plague along with thousands of others, that is all. So I ask you, Father, were they, all those stricken, were they too pawns of the Devil?”

This passage demonstrates Abitha’s powers of reasoning. Abitha often uses logic in order to pick at the ways in which the church’s values don’t match her own. This particular instance, though, also demonstrates Abitha’s willingness to question authority—in this case, she speaks directly to God himself with a confrontational tone.

“Abitha stared at a small apple tree near Edward’s beehives, marveled at the luscious low-hanging fruit. The leaves of the tree were a stunning crimson and she wondered how it was she’d never noticed this extraordinary tree before. The apples were bloodred and without a doubt the most delicious-looking she’d ever seen. Her mouth watered and she walked over, started to grab one, heard a hiss, and yanked her hand back. A silky black serpent with red eyes lay coiled about the limb.”

Here, Abitha dreams of a tree that, it is implied, is Pawpaw, while also being an allusion to the Biblical Tree of Knowledge. In the context of the allusion, Abitha is Eve. This conflation of imagery suggests that Abitha’s increasing proximity to Samson/Earth Mother will give her knowledge that will ultimately cast her out of God’s kingdom and hence the religious society of Sutton. This imagery foreshadows the events of the ending.

“‘It appears the good Lord no more approves of this woman’s doings than do we.’

‘She is wretched,’ Wallace said. ‘Appears half-starved, gaunt, with dark circles under her eyes. Has taken on too much…used herself up.’”

Here, Wallace and Lord Mansfield critique Abitha. Wallace’s critique speaks to what men in this society value in women: their appearances. It doesn’t matter that Abitha is a hard worker; all that matters is that the work makes her unattractive.

“She heard her father’s shrill cry. Dare not take food from the hand of the Devil! It is a sin! Then her mother’s strong voice. It would be a sin to let food go to waste.”

As Abitha contemplates whether or not to eat food from Samson, she has this memory of the very different ways in which her parents thought about power, religion, and sin. The gender dichotomy here aligns with the dichotomy in Sutton, where men adhere to the church’s power structures while women often find ways around it.

“Can a god be both slayer and shepherd? Reward and vex? Does your god only do good?”

Here, Samson asks Abitha about the Christian god. His questioning exposes the internal quandary he’s having as he attempts to figure out whether he is a shepherd or a slayer. This questioning points to the beginnings of Samson’s musings about whether this is a false dichotomy.

“‘What the hell are you supposed to be?’

‘What do we look like?’

‘Ugly women,’ Jesus said with a snort.

‘No, we’re Indians.’”

Wallace and Isaac disguise themselves as Pequots in order to raid Abitha’s farm. This interaction demonstrates some of the racism harbored by the colonists. Wallace chooses this disguise because he wants to create what he sees as a believable narrative—that the Pequot are inherently criminal and would do something as diabolical as what he’s planning. Furthermore, he lacks understanding of Pequot culture and cannot dress in an authentic way, reinforcing the notion that his prejudicial assumptions are wrong.

“He leaned forward, his chin on her shoulder. She glanced at his face, so wild, strange, and savage, yet somehow beautiful. She felt the thrum of his heart join that of hers and the broom, all pulsing together as one.”

In this intensely sexual moment between Abitha and Samson, the duo rides a broom. The broom is a phallic image, but it runs between both of their legs, and it is Abitha who controls it. This reconfiguration of cisgendered, heterosexual imagery underscores the many inversions of power dynamics that come of Abitha’s connection with Samson.

“And then, for one second, Abitha saw herself through the eyes, through all those millions of eyes, and when she did she understood something of great magnitude, yet so simple. All the eyes, they are one. They are all one.”

This is an example of one of the novel’s hallucinogenic moments, when Abitha has an experience beyond her understanding. This type of experience is a staple of the cosmic horror genre, in which horror and wonder is created by the protagonist coming into contact with something that exists outside the realm of human knowledge.

“She had flown through the sky on a broom through worlds both wonderful and terrible, had looked into the very face of God, and she wanted to do it all again.”

Here, Abitha recovers from the moment of cosmic horror experienced in the previous quote. The tone of this passage reflects both the excitement Abitha feels at the prospect of being close to God, and her irreverence for the Christian god. Abitha doesn’t feel cowed by the assumed power that comes with authority—even when that authority is God’s.

“‘Wait, where are you going?’ Abitha called.

‘To find Hobomok,’ he called back, and disappeared into the woods.”

Samson says that he’s going to find Hobomok, yet he is Hobomok. This quote underscores the development that Samson is undergoing. He no longer sees Hobomok as a legitimate facet of his identity—he has instead embraced “Samson” as a way of thinking about himself. This said, he still yearns to understand why others see him through the lens of Hobomok.

“He felt his face flush, his temper burn. It was more than her words, more than the way she was speaking to him—it was her sneer, her contemptuous little sneer.”

This passage begins to dig into the reasons for Wallace’s hatred of Abitha. He doesn’t only hate her for daring to speak out against him but also for “the way she was speaking to him.” Wallace fears the confidence with which Abitha can oppose him, because he no longer has confidence in his own ability to right the situation in which he finds himself.

“Life is nothing but riddles…we spend out whole lives puzzling them out. Sadly, as soon as we find the answer, the riddle changes. Does it not?”

Here, Mamunappeht suggests to Samson that his life is a riddle—something unknowable and unanswerable. Mamunappeht’s philosophy doesn’t align with Samson’s experience in the narrative—when Samson learns the truth of his history, his motivations in the present only become clearer.

“‘It is the Devil’s minion!’ Ansel shouted, stepping toward the cage and jabbing his finger at the cat.

The cat cowed and hissed, and Charity cried out. ‘It sets its evil eye upon me!’”

Here, Charity begins the mass hysteria that sees Abitha imprisoned. Charity’s accusations provide the body of evidence needed to convict a witch at this period in time. Her well-acted lies speak to how effectively Wallace knows how to manipulate the law.

“There were some, yes, like Goody and Ansel, whose faces betrayed their inner vileness, but most appeared transported, almost in rapture, as though sharing this moment with God Himself, their hands clasped to their breasts, staring upward into the firmament.”

Abitha observes that the churchgoers watching Sarah’s torture all appear to be having a religious experience. This demonstrates the breadth of the control Puritanism has over the psyches of the people of Sutton. The lens of religion transforms abject violence into something necessary, even something cleansing.

“‘The skull showed you a truth,’ Forest said. ‘That which the mask wanted you to see. But there are many truths.’”

Forest’s observation that there are “many truths” speaks to Samson’s experience over the course of the novel. Samson is offered many interpretations of his past and his identity. Ultimately, it is up to him to choose which interpretation he will use to understand himself and which truths are not his truth.

“This is about blood. This is about hunting Wallace down and killing him even if it takes my last breath. Two eyes for an eye.”

Here, Abitha articulates her philosophy of revenge. She reconfigures the Biblical mainstay, “an eye for an eye”—which suggests that revenge is morally right as long as it’s fair—into the phrase “two eyes for an eye.” This sentence underscores not only Abitha’s deviance from Christianity but also her belief that revenge doesn’t need to be “fair” to be justified.

“A hard grimace set on Abitha’s face. ‘If it is a witch they want,’ she hissed, ‘then a witch they shall have.’”

This line crystallizes Abitha’s arc over the course of the narrative. Here, Abitha embraces the idea that she must become the monster people believe her to be in order to survive. It is one of the novel’s great ironies that Sutton creates the very being that destroys it.

“Do not dare judge her harshly, Reverend. Few have ever borne so much suffering as did she. It was only for her daughter that she gave in. It was love, not pain, that broke her.”

Here, Abitha tells Reverend Carter about Sarah’s torture. Abitha insists that Carter not see Sarah’s false confession as morally wrong; Abitha knows that Carter has reached a place in his development at which he can understand that the Puritanical binary of right and wrong is oversimplified.

“All the eyes, all the gods, they are all part of the same. Mother Earth, Christ, all the religious sects across the globe, the sun, the earth, the moon, the planets, the stars, man and beast, gods and devils, al of existence. All of it, one thing!”

Here, Abitha finally makes sense of the experience of cosmic horror that she had earlier in the novel. Abitha’s ability to interpret and experience that went beyond human knowledge speaks to how distant she has become from her own humanity—but also, that she’s better for it.