Hannah Tupper In The Witch Of Blackbird Pond

New country, new town, new people, new rules, and new values. After her grandfather’s death in Barbados, Katherine sells his possessions and makes the decision to leave her home. She enters America as an outsider, unable to fit in with her extravagant clothes, seven trunks of valuables, and possesses unwomanly characteristics, like swimming and reading. In The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Katherine arrives at her uncle’s doorsteps, surprising them by her unplanned visit, but shocking the family with her intention to begin living with them. Her extravagant and prestigious life she led in Barbados was no longer existent in her uncle’s hard-working family. She is forced to complete chores that she was never exposed to and pushed to give up her comfortable

Her family advised Katherine to refrain from visiting her after her first visit, blaming her nickname of a witch on her being a Quaker. When Hannah took Kit to her home after she had been in the meadow, Kit expresses fear because of the rumors she had been told of. Speare states, “Kit stiffened with a cold prickle against her spine. Those thin stooped shoulders, that tattered gray shawl-this was the queer woman from Blackbird Pond-Hannah Tupper, the witch!” (59). Katherine became fearful of Hannah, despite her kind and hospitable personality. Because of her being a Quaker, she is disrespected by the rest of the townspeople, isolating her from society. The false fear that was instilled in Katherine’s heart shows how determined the townspeople are to create a completely exclusive society where only people of their thinking were allowed to live. The cut-off society will only prosper in the townspeople’s minds, but in reality, their lack of individuality will cause them to be restricted from the outside world. Katherine’s student, Prudence is also brought to meet Hannah. Prudence, like Katherine, views her as a threat but grew to love her when the stories told by the town were deemed false (74). Prudence and Kit retreat to Hannah’s house every day, symbolizing an area of peace and friendship. The friendship among the women signifies a tie between the town and Hannah grows to be an important figure in both Kit’s and Prudence’s