Ti-Jean and His Brothers- Prologue

 Ti-Jean and His Brother Introduction.

Most likely you have this book right?

If so cool I had that one too and I actually read the entire book.... but in school.... i read it on my own when my mother told me too because mainland scholars aren't appropriate to only know about... so it was different in a good way I guess. Also if your school prompts a field trip to go see enactments of the play's GO TO IT! It'll help so much more than you think because most people now remember easier when we see things cause of TV and media in general....

Prologue Summary 

Notes:

The prologue to the story shows the sibling rivalry between the brothers as well as the state of their living, is poverty. It paints the image that their mother is superstitious and rather religious.

Set in a rainforest, the play is a Caribbean fairy tale. The animals of the forest, through dialogue, dance and song, tell the story of the devil, who challenges three brothers, Gros Jean, Mi-Jean and Ti-Jean, through various demanding tasks and provocations, to make the devil acquire compassion and sympathy. The brothers must accept and execute the challenges without losing their temper, and if any of them loses his temper he will be consumed by the Devil. However, if the devil is unable to anger the brothers, he will become human(e).

 The script begins with stage direction of;

Evening. Rain. The heights of a forest. A cricket, a frog, a firefly, a bird. Left, a hut with bare table, an empty bowl, stools. The MOTHER waiting.

This sets the scene from the reader's point of view, then shifts to the animals talking.

The frog and the cricket begin with the phrase ‘Greek-croak, Greek-craok’ which is an ancient chronic device used by Aristophanes in text.  After which the  frog sneezes and the creatures begin to comment on the moon’s absence.

SPOILER:
The moon in their conversation becomes a foreshadowing of Ti-Jean beating the devil at the end of the play. The moon is a symbol of what Ti-Jean represents being chosen to defeat the devil;. His morality was good triumphs evil which metaphorically describes Ti-Jean as the moon.

• Gros-Jean;The eldest son who is proud of his physical strength.

The first son was Gros Jean.

That son he was the biggest,

His arm was hard as iron,

But he was very stupid.

Shown by;

So I didn’t use the axe

As I didn’t want it to get wet.

If it get wet it get rusty.

• Mi-Jean; The middle son who is a self-educated fool.

In size, the second biggest,

So only half as stupid; now,

He was a fisherman, but

Always studying book, and

What a fisherman; For

When he going and fish,

Always forgetting the bait,

So between de bait and debate...

• Ti-Jean; The youngest son who is tender and witty with a clear understanding of when to use physical strength and when to argue/act cleverly.

Frog: If you look in the moon,

Though no moon is here tonight,

There is a man, no, a boy,

Bent by the weight of faggots

He carried on his shoulder,

A small dog trotting with him.

• Mother; The Mother of Gros-Jean Mi-Jean and Ti-Jean. Only Ti-Jean receives his mother’s advice and accepts it.

Frog; Old hand dried up like claws

Heaping old sticks on sticks,

Too weak to protect her nest.

→ This shows the mother is poor, old and that she works hard. 

NBS; Father’s dead; With her husband cold in earth

Antagonists;

• Bolom; Works for the Devil and is the fetus of an aborted child. It symbolizes abandoned human potential. A postcolonial reading of the Bolom posits that it is the offspring produced as a result of miscegenation which was a part of plantation society.

Bolom; Listen, Creatures of greatness,

Old tree face marked with scars,

And the wounds of bearing children,

Whom the earth swallowed,

This is the shriek

Of a child which was strangled,

Who never saw the earth light

Through a hinge of the womb,

Strangled by a woman,

Who hated my birth,

Twisted out of shape,

Deformed past recognition,

Tell me then, Mother,

Would you care to see it?

[Bolom moves out of the light shrieking]

• Devil;The character that uses French Creole the most in the Prologue. From, a critical point of view, this can be read as a symbolic manifestation of how colonial powers demonized the Creole languages of the Caribbean.

Frog says: If they were frightened of him?

Powdery as leprosy,

Like the pock-marked moon,

Afraid of his dead eye,

That had no fire in it…

• A bolom is the spirit of an unborn child Killed during child birth or after it was birthed.

Notes on prologue:

[Sad music on flute] ← it shows the element of sound to emphasize the trialsome hardness of life.

[Crash of cymbals. Shrieks, thunder. The animals cower as the Devil with his troop of fiends, the Werewolf, the Diablesse, the Bolom, somersault and dance across the stage. The sky is red.] ← The element of sound, the music becomes threatening and scary to make the atmosphere.

Heaping old sticks on sticks,

Too weak to protect her nest ← Metaphor used

Powdery as leprosy ← Simile

{Ti-Jean: maman, m’a fait un rien (Mama I didn’t do a thing)

Gros-Jean:We do all the damned work.

Mi-Jean: We do all the damned work.} ← The boys bash the devil after the mother speaks of the planter.

Mother: The Devil has sent us

Another of his angels!

Gros-Jean: Line the step with find sand

To keep out the evil. ← shows the superstitious side of the family

Mi-Jean: Turn over, Mother, the hem of your skirt! 

Mi-Jean and Ti-Jean: Let our two fingers form in one crucifix!

Message from the Devil:

Send the first of your sons outside for it,

They must die in order. And let the youngest

Return into the hut.

The Bolom states how it died: A woman did me harm,

Called herself mother,

The fear of her hatred

A cord around my throat!

The mother consoles the Bolom by saying; Look, perhaps it is luckiest

Never to be born,← the mother believes it is unluckiest ot be born.

To the horror of this life

Crowded with shadows,

Never to have known

That the sun will go out,

The leaf green rust,

The strong tree o be stricken

And the roaring spring quail; ← She believes life is very difficult.

Peace to you, unborn,

You can find comfort here.

Let mother touch you,

For the sake of her kind ← the mother shows herself to be very kind and loving.

The Bolom says: The Devil is my master
Who owns half of the world, ←  speaks of the Devil’s negativities
In the kingdom of night,
Has done all that is evil
Butchered thousands in war,
Whispered his diseases
In the ears of great statesman,
Invented human justice,
Made anger, pride, jealousy,
And weakened prayer;
Still cannot enjoy
Those vices he created.
He is dying to be human
So he sends you this challenge!
To all three of your sons
He says through my voice,
That if anyone on earth
[Devils’ voice chanting]
Anyone human ←  this then prompts him to show that
Can make him feel anger ← the devil wants to be human
Rage, and human Weakness, ← as he wants to feel, so he sent
He will reward them ← the bolom and through the bolom he made
He will fill that bowl, ← himself heard to the family.
With a shower of sovereigns, ← He will reward them for having him feel human emotions
You shall never know hunger,
But fulfilment, wealth, peace,
[Increased drum roll to climax]
But if any of your sons ← then speaks of the repercussions of doing this
Fails to give him these feelings ← If they fail they will Die!
For he was never human
Then his flesh shall be eaten
For he is weary of the flesh
Of the fowls of the air
And the fishes in the sea
But whichever of your sons
Is brave enough to do this
Then that one shall inherit
The wealth of my prince
And once they are dead, woman
I too shall feel life!

To Summarize the Prologue:

Themes:

Colonialism;

• White planter

• References to slavery

• Plantation

• Sugar cane

• Great house

• Bolom is a child that died before birth, it is a Saint Lucian folklore.

• In this the Bolm appears to want to be born and experience life, so it works with the devil to get life, she presents the challenge to the mother and her sons.

The incidents that occurs with all the brothers:

1. Decides to set off on the challenge and mother gives them advice.

2. Enters the forest and sees the animals.

3. The Old man stumbles to sit on a tree stump after lifting his robe to scratch his hairy hoof.

4.  They go off in search of the planters estate. After the meeting they discuss and orders are given.

5. Cuts to monologue or scenes of the brother doing the job.