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Ti Jean And His Brothers: An allegory on the story of the Caribbean
He was a young boy who had to fight against the Devil, but despite his youth, size and impoverishment, he used his wits and cunning as well as the elements of surprise and daring, to defeat his powerful and intimidating foe. As a reward for that achievement, God elevated him and put him in the moon as a guide to the world. That is known as a myth of origin – a story used in folk belief to explain the existence of things encountered in the universe. In this case it explains how the man came to be in the moon.
Additionally, it is a celebration of the triumph of good over evil that is found universally in folk tales, including fairy tales and many religious myths. In St Lucia, it is a victory on behalf of the people, most of whom are members of the impoverished class of peasants, village folk and workers. These tales of triumph sustain them in their daily struggle against poverty and a socio-political existence as a people without power, without voice and representation. They gain power and liberation vicariously through mythology and folk heroes with the motif of the victory of good over evil.
The name Ti Jean is Creole French Patois for Little John – John is a common name and this character is a mere boy – so called because he is the youngest of three brothers, and demonstrates how a common small man without economic, social or political power can triumph over the prevailing adversity. He is the equivalent of ‘the everyman’ in Caribbean society with whom all can identify, and the story is the struggle of the Caribbean people for success.
This folk tale and its hero were used by the late St Lucian poet and playwright Derek Walcott, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, to write the play Ti Jean and His Brothers, a prescribed text for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate English B (literature) examination until 2023.
In Walcott’s play there are three brothers, sons of a poor woman living on the edge of a mountain forest. The Devil, who lives nearby, has grown tired of his immortality and is bored with his triumphs and activities. He has an overwhelming desire to know what it feels like to be mortal; he wants to experience fear, anger, laughter and human emotions. So he challenges the brothers to a contest with him, one by one, to see who can succeed in making the other angry. If the brothers win they will be rewarded, but if they get angry first they will be devoured. The two older brothers, Gros Jean and Mi Jean fail, but the youngest, Ti Jean, demonstrates the characteristics for success and beats the Devil.
Apart from a plot whose source is a West Indian folk tale, in creating the play, Walcott drew on a mixture of many other forms and traditions, including the fairy tale, Classical Greek drama, comedy, tragedy, the fable, Caribbean folklore characters and talking animals.
The fairy tale has had a striking effect on West Indian folk tales and in this case Walcott enriched his drama with such traditions. Prominent among these is the very common motif of a man or woman with three sons who one by one ventures out into the world to seek his fortune. In this tale there is the fairy tale factor of absentation – their father is dead, then one by one they leave home to take up the Devil’s challenge. Then there are donor characters who are willing to render assistance if the hero of the story passes the test and possesses the qualities necessary for success.
As borrowed from the fairy tale, both older brothers Gros Jean and Mi Jean, fail that test. They are arrogant and conceited. Gros Jean is strong – he has “an arm of iron” and a false sense of invincibility, so he scoffs at the idea that he could need help from the weak little animals or any advice from anyone. With this arrogance he plots his downfall because the animals render him no assistance and even Papa Bois takes advantage of his hasty dismissal of anything that does not possess his physical might, including wisdom from an old man. Papa Bois, who in this play is really the Devil in disguise, laughs at the ease with which Gros Jean falls into his trap.
Next is Mi Jean who has nothing but contempt for the animals who he insults and therefore gets no assistance from them. In his conceit, he considers himself superior because of his knowledge and learning, which are in fact superficial leaving him unintelligent and easy prey to the Devil’s traps.
On the contrary, Ti Jean has the good qualities that allow him to pass the test. He makes friends with the animals, complimenting them and being humble and civil. Since the conquest of good over evil is a fairy tale motif, Ti Jean’s humane attitudes fit in here, and the animals give him every assistance and support. As in the fairy tales, the youngest sibling is the kindest, most intelligent and genuine, so Ti Jean succeeds where his brothers fail.
But he also makes full use of his wits and at every turn he outsmarts the Devil. Success for the hero by use of wit and brain power is not only a motif in fairy tales, it is also common in Caribbean folk tales – Anansi is the prime example of this. These forms also share the appearance of talking animals, also found in Classical Greek plays. There are Greek comedies with a chorus of animals, some of the comedies of Aristophanes have titles like The Birds and The Frogs (Walcott used a frog as his narrator). But animals persist in West Indian folk tales and this is therefore also common in the local storytelling tradition.
Walcott, however, had other intentions above the performance of a folktale. Much of what he did with these forms was symbolic and used as vehicles to achieve other purposes, such as the dramatisation of themes. Among these is the Caribbean struggle through its history against slavery, oppression, colonialism and poverty. There is the struggle of Caribbean people for liberation and independence.
In Ti Jean and His Brothers, the Devil disguises himself as a white planter and this is symbolic. That planter is an archetypal character representing plantation society and the coloniser class. Presenting him as the Devil suggests the evil at the head of the system of slavery, the entire history of racism, cruelty, exploitation and inhumanity and the reduction of a people to poverty.
The treatment of Gros Jean becomes important here. The planter perpetually infuriates Gros Jean by pretending to forget his name. This is a persistent weapon to drive him to anger whereupon he would lose the bet, but more than that it was a longstanding ploy under slavery and neo-colonialism. Non-recognition of the names of the enslaved was a known practice to strip them of their identity which would have given them a certain amount of cultural power, which for the planter was a threat against his security. The enslaved were given their owners’ names, Christian names, or names taken from Greek or Roman classicism and mockingly applied. The removal of names was as much a racist slur as it was a form of oppression and a weapon used by the Devil in the play.
When the Frog sneezes, using the utterance “Aeschylus-me!”, there is humour. He is saying “excuse me”, but it was also Walcott’s acknowledgement of borrowing from the Greek playwrights. Aeschylus was a tragedian, and Walcott introduced some elements of the Greek tragedy in his treatment of the Devil, who comes over at times as the tragic hero. There is an almost sympathetic study of a great tragic character. It is a humanisation of the immortal Satan and a comment on human weakness.
The play takes on Christianity with its frequent use of Christian mythology and the repetition of the ironic statement when Ti Jean says looking at the Devil’s face is like gazing at the blinding face of God, and the Devil responds: “It is hard to distinguish us”. Walcott teased the Christian with statements that the Devil “owns half the world”, that he and God are two equal emperors. But worse, Christianity often comes over as indistinguishable from colonial impoverishment of the people in the forest and the villages.
That is why Ti Jean and His Brothers is often describ-ed as an allegory, the disguise for a hard-hitting com-mentary on poverty and persistent colonisation of poor people, and the struggle of the Caribbean nations for independence.
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- | September 23, 2016
- By Staff Reporter
- - September 23, 2016
By Jasmaine Payne
LOCAL students were over the past few days given the chance to experience the magical world created by award-winning St. Lucian poet and playwright, Derek Walcott. The occasion was the staging of the local adaptation of Walcott’s famous Ti-Jean and his brothers at the National Cultural Centre from Tuesday to yesterday.
The play, directed by Al Creighton and Subraj Singh, was staged as a collaborative effort of the National Drama Company, the National School of Theatre Arts and Drama, and the Unit of Allied Arts in honour of Education month, and is part of the current Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) syllabus. “One of the things that the drama company does is to educate through theatre,” Creighton said. “So we felt we could make some contribution, given that it is part of the syllabus, and it would be a good experience for students to see the play, and also to demonstrate the kind of theatre that the Drama School and the Drama Company does,” he told The Buzz in an interview.
And the experience itself was a delightful one, in which Walcott’s magical but eerie vision of a universe where animals tell stories, and humans make deadly deals with the devil, is expertly and creatively portrayed through the collaborative direction of Creighton and Singh. The play itself differs in genre to what the Guyanese crowd is accustomed to, straying away from realist traditions and instead utilising aspects of post-modernism and folk tales. “I think it’s important for Guyanese theatre to catch up with what the rest of the world is doing, especially in the Caribbean,” Singh said. “We see this kind of theatre a lot in Jamaica and Trinidad, and we are doing our part to ensure that Guyana gets there with everybody else,” he added. FAMILY AFFAIR Ti-Jean and his brothers features a poor woman with three sons: The strong but arrogant Gros-Jean (played by Ackeem Joseph), the self-righteous but naïve Mi- Jean (played by Keon Heywood), and the meek and fearful Ti-Jean (played by Nikose Layne).
They make a deal with the devil (played by Mark Luke Edwards and Nicholas Singh as the devil disguised as ‘Papa Bois’) that whoever out-smarts him will be rewarded. While the two older brothers fail and are killed, it is Ti-Jean’s playfulness, patience and wit that ultimately defeat the devil. It is a tale as old as time; one which features the dualities of good over evil, and which has been told in numerous forms, perhaps the most famous being the tale of David and Goliath, one of the many biblical references in the play itself, but which was beautifully and magically captured in this local adaptation. MAGICAL Indeed, the magic could almost be seen in the vibrant colours of the fabrics used in the costumes and stage design, and heard in the music compiled by local musicians throughout the production. Moreover, perhaps it was the sound effects, the use of lighting; perhaps it was the sinister chanting or the sight of the demons crawling on stage; or maybe it was the general conditioning of our minds that the presence of the devil in any narrative should induce fear, but the production featured genuinely chilling aspects that unnerved the entire audience at various sections. Creighton and Singh’s adaptation is infused with unique elements such as dance, exaggerated folk elements and strong influences from Trinidad’s Carnival (the chant of the devil from Trinidad’s Devil Mas is repeated throughout the play) which help to enhance the play, and add to Walcott’s own genius. “I am happy to be part of this, because of the opportunity it provided to do a different kind of theatre,” Creighton said, adding: “To do Walcott is also a privilege and an honour; he is one of the world’s leading poet playwrights.” It was also a pleasure, he said, to work with Singh, who he says has a promising future in Guyanese theatre.
Seems the respect was mutual, as Singh said of him: “It was equally an honour to work with Al Creighton, because he comes with this wealth of experience, which is nice to tap into.” As to the play, he said: “And for me also, it was a great honour to stage a Walcott play, not only because it is Walcott, but it is an important play, especially the way in which our adaptation balances modernity and history, because we have post-modernist techniques and borrowed from folk tale traditions of the Caribbean.” Other actors who were part of the production were: Tashandra Inniss, Nicola Moonsammy, Nirmala Narine, Melinda Primo-Solomon, Sonia Yarde, Esther Hamer, Kimberly Fernandes, Ayanna Waddell and Onix Duncan. Music was provided by Lisa Adams, Kimberly Samuels, Ricardo Stanton.
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“Ti-Jean and His Brothers: A Caribbean Folk Tale” performance at ENC
ENC Theatre Department’s upcoming play “Ti-Jean and His Brothers: A Caribbean Folk Tale” can be considered a fable or a parable, but it is ultimately a moral-seeking piece of theatrical art. It asks the hard questions of the audience, even if it comes across as a simple, entertaining story.
Written by Derek Walcott, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992, the play explores timeless themes (good vs. evil), spiritual themes (the role of God and the devil), and existential questions (What does it mean to be human?).
Set in the West Indies, the play explores the responses and faith of three brothers when they encounter an enticing offer from the devil: relief from their hardship and obtaining their hearts’ desires.
Sophomore Toan Nguyen, playing the character of Ti-Jean, offers insight into the multi-layered dimension of the play by stating that while the play certainly starts out as a simple story of the characters trying to beat the devil, it transcends into a lesson about how we “as humans have to figure out how to live with [the devil] in this world without falling victim to his desires.”
Senior RJ Barnett, playing the character of Mi-Jean, says that “the cast is so much fun to rehearse with and Tara is a terrific director. I think her vision for this production will come across in a special way.”
With Director Tara Brooke Watkins leading the endeavor, audiences can expect a thrilling experience. Using lush colors such as, “lime green, turquoise, tangerine, and watermelon” from Trinidadian Carnival tradition to highlight the characters and set, the play will be enmeshed in visual spectacle.
“Ti-Jean and His Brothers: A Caribbean Folk Tale” will appear Feb. 18-20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Cove Fine Arts Center. Tickets can be purchased in advance online at Brown Paper Tickets or at the box-office before the show.
Ti-Jean and His Brothers
By derek walcott, ti-jean and his brothers literary elements.
Morality play, folktale
Caribbean English Patois
Setting and Context
Surreal Caribbean setting, colonial era
Narrator and Point of View
The story is narrated by the frog, who is telling the familiar story of Ti-Jean and His Brothers to the other animals. They perceive the story as an old folk tale, and Ti-Jean as its hero.
Tone and Mood
The mood of much of the play is uncanny, tense, and foreboding. The tricks Ti-Jean plays on the Devil changes the mood somewhat, making the play more humorous and whimsical. At the end, the mood is reverent and quiet. The tone is sympathetic to the three brothers and the mother, despite the failings of Gros Jean and Mi-Jean. Yet it is also somewhat sympathetic to the Devil, who is also a prisoner of his own loneliness and immortality.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is Ti-Jean. The antagonist is the Devil.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is between the Jean family and the Devil. This plays out in three parts, with first Gros Jean and then Mi-Jean losing to the Devil, and Ti-Jean eventually winning.
The climax comes when Ti-Jean drives the Devil to anger, winning the challenge. The play reaches the highest point of tension here because the Devil refuses to give in, putting Ti-Jean in what seems like an impossible position, because he cannot save himself even by winning the bet.
Foreshadowing
The Devil's song at the end of the prologue foreshadows the deaths of Gros Jean and Mi-Jean. Mother's warning to Gros Jean, which he ignores, also foreshadows his defeat and death.
Understatement
The Devil's exclamation, "Descendant of the ape, how eloquent you have become! How assured in logic! How marvellous in invention! And yet, poor shaving monkey, the animal in you is still in evidence, that goat . . .” in Act 2 alludes to this famous quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet: "What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals. And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?"
Walcott's portrayal of the Devil as sympathetic alludes to Milton's Paradise Lost, where the Devil is famously portrayed as a complex, three-dimensional character and a highly sympathetic speaker, despite the poem's Christian framing.
Parallelism
The structures of the three acts all parallel one another, with each brother leaving home, speaking with the animals, meeting the old man, and finally confronting the planter.
Personification
The old man is a personification of worldly wisdom.
Use of Dramatic Devices
In the opening scene, Walcott divides the stage between the animals narrating the story of Ti-Jean, and the story of Ti-Jean being acted out. This brings their story to life and creates a smooth transition from the framing device to the main play.
The script dictates that after Gros Jean's death in the first act, his grave should be placed on stage. The same thing happens after Mi-Jean's death. This dramatic device uses the stage to foreshadow the dangers each brother will face, and to create an uncanny mood.
Ti-Jean and His Brothers Questions and Answers
The Question and Answer section for Ti-Jean and His Brothers is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.
There are not many female characters. Mother is the main one. Mother is a poor old woman who gradually loses all three of her sons over the course of the play. With each son, she pleads with them to be safe, but all but Ti-Jean ignore her advice....
What are two instances where a character appears proud and discuss how a character reacts to one of the instances described?
Check out GradeSaver's summary and analysis for Act I in the study guide for the novel. The study guide contains all of the information you need to formulate an answer for your question.
What is Gros-Jean’s response and attitude to his mother’s advice?
What advice are you referring to? Chapter?
Study Guide for Ti-Jean and His Brothers
Ti-Jean and His Brothers study guide contains a biography of Derek Walcott, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.
- About Ti-Jean and His Brothers
- Ti-Jean and His Brothers Summary
- Character List
Why Good triumph over evil in the play to Jean and his brothers?
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Was the ultimate result of the oresteia is the triumph of evil over good?
When did triumph over evil end.
Triumph Over Evil ended on 1998-01-09.
What does the water which destroys the wicked witch represent in wizard of oz?
The triumph of good over evil.
Who played jean the seamstress on desperate housewives?
. Patrika Darbo, who also played the admitting nurse in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"
The Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau proposed that humans are naturally but are corrupted by?
Rousseau believed that human evil was caused by society.
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Like Ti-Jean and His Brothers, The Book of Night Women by Marlon James also addresses the theme of colonialism in the Caribbean. The novel's protagonist, Lilith, is born into slavery and orphaned in early childhood. Like Walcott does in Ti-Jean and His Brothers, James analyzes the variety of responses that colonized peoples have to their colonizers.
Ti-Jean and His Brothers study guide contains a biography of Derek Walcott, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. ... Walcott suggests that the world is not simply divided between good and evil. The challenge of life is not only to be good, but to reckon with problems like suffering and ...
Juxtaposition: the brothers are juxtaposed against each other, contrast between light vs dark, good vs evil Dramatic Irony: the audience knows that both Gros-Jean and Mi-Jean will die based on innuendos that the playwright creates. Characterization: the brothers are foils of each other -Gros-Jean: ignorant, impatient, arrogant/self- assured.
Pride vs. Humility. Ti-Jean and His Brothers is a fable set in the Caribbean in which the Devil poses a challenge to three brothers. The Devil promises to grant wealth and property to whichever of the brothers is able to make him angry. But the other side of the deal is that the Devil will eat the brothers whom he is able to make angry.
Ti-Jean and His Brothers Summary. In Ti-Jean and His Brothers, Ti-Jean, Mi-Jean and Gros Jean are three impoverished Caribbean young men who live on a cold mountain with their deeply religious mother. Often, the boys don't have enough to eat. Gros Jean is strong but not very smart, and Mi-Jean is smart but always has his head in the clouds.
Much of his poetry responds to the legacy of the Western canon, both adapting it and transforming it. In Ti-Jean and His Brothers, that dynamic is less explicit, but its still an important part of understanding what Walcott is doing in this play. Medieval morality plays were the most popular genre of drama in fifteenth-century England.
One of the most important divisions in Ti-Jean and His Brothers is between mortal and immortal persons. The animals and the Jean family are all mortal, while the Devil, the demons, and the Bolom are immortal. As Mother and the old man emphasize, mortality can make people bitter, because by the end of our lives, we realize that everything good ...
Alone, Ti-Jean states, we are rotten, but together we are strong. Paired with this moral of unity, we find one last bit of wisdom in "Ti-Jean," and it comes from the mouth of the Devil: "the features will be different, but the battle will be the same." Evil is not going to be outsmarted or killed with brute force; evil is like darkness.
Since the conquest of good over evil is a fairy tale motif, Ti Jean's humane attitudes fit in here, and the animals give him every assistance and support. As in the fairy tales, the youngest ...
Pride vs. Humility Quotes in Ti-Jean and His Brothers. Below you will find the important quotes in Ti-Jean and His Brothers related to the theme of Pride vs. Humility. Act 2 Quotes. "A man is no better than an animal. The one with two legs makes more noise and that make him believe he can think.".
The play is infused with music that superbly blends elements of comedy and tragedy. Ti- Jean and His Brothers is an ambivalent play that discusses the fine lines between good, evil, spirituality and political adversity in the West Indian regions, thus allowing his audience the possibility of several different meanings and interpretation.
Juxtaposition: the brothers are juxtaposed against each other, contrast between light vs dark, good vs evil Sound -Crash of cymbals to signify the presence of the Bolom and Devil -Explosion after each son is devoured by the devil Dramatic Irony: the audience knows that both Gros-Jean and Mi-Jean will die based on innuendos that the playwright ...
The old man as "worldly wisdom" (Allegory) When the animals speak to Ti-Jean about the old man, they call him "worldly wisdom.". In other words, the old man is a personification of the abstract idea of "worldly wisdom," or the way of knowing the world based only on the things of this world. In the play, worldly wisdom is pessimistic ...
Ti-Jean and his brothers features a poor woman with three sons: The strong but arrogant Gros-Jean (played by Ackeem Joseph), the self-righteous but naïve Mi- Jean (played by Keon Heywood), and the meek and fearful Ti-Jean (played by Nikose Layne). Mark Luke Edwards as the Planter/Devil and Keon Heywood as Mi-Jean
The document provides a detailed summary and analysis of the Caribbean folktale "Ti-Jean and his Brothers" by Derek Walcott. It describes the characters including the three brothers - Gros Jean, Mi-Jean, and Ti-Jean - who each face challenges from the antagonist Papa Bois/the Devil. Each brother attempts to defeat the Devil using their individual gifts or strengths but fail, until the youngest ...
In "Ti-Jean and His Brothers" by Derek Walcott, the themes of good and evil are portrayed through the characters Ti-Jean and the Devil. Ti-Jean represents goodness, innocence, and perseverance ...
Summary. Analysis. Early morning the next day, Gros Jean rises early and packs up a bundle. His mother is sorry to see him go, but he feels it is time for him to go out and find work. Gros Jean thinks his arm is too strong just to be splitting trees; he has an arm of iron. His mother is quick to correct him, saying, "The arm which digs a ...
Using lush colors such as, "lime green, turquoise, tangerine, and watermelon" from Trinidadian Carnival tradition to highlight the characters and set, the play will be enmeshed in visual spectacle. "Ti-Jean and His Brothers: A Caribbean Folk Tale" will appear Feb. 18-20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Cove Fine Arts Center. Tickets can be purchased ...
The tricks Ti-Jean plays on the Devil changes the mood somewhat, making the play more humorous and whimsical. At the end, the mood is reverent and quiet. The tone is sympathetic to the three brothers and the mother, despite the failings of Gros Jean and Mi-Jean. Yet it is also somewhat sympathetic to the Devil, who is also a prisoner of his own ...
The recurrent theme of the essay was the ultimate triumph of good over evil. ... Good vs Evil - The play Ti-jean and his brothers is an enactment of good versus evil whereas through the events, we ...
Ti-Jean Character Analysis. The youngest of three brothers and the protagonist of the play, Ti-Jean grows up in poverty raised by a single mother on a cold mountain somewhere in the Caribbean. While his oldest brother, Gros Jean, is known for his strength, and his middle brother, Mi-Jean, is known for his intellect, Ti-Jean is still really a ...
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Ti-Jean. The youngest of three brothers and the protagonist of the play, Ti-Jean grows up in poverty raised by a single mother on a cold mountain somewhere in the Caribbean. While his oldest brother, Gros Jean … read analysis of Ti-Jean.