Lies In A Break With Charity By Ann Rinaldi

"’The elders are looking for someone to blame. We will give them many someones.’ ‘You will give forth the names of people as witches? When you know you girls are not really afflicted?’ ‘We will, and the elders will be glad to know that the cause of the bickering and trouble in this place lies not at their own feet but is the fault of witches living amongst us.’" (26-28) Lies have negative consequences. In the book A Break With Charity by Ann Rinaldi, many characters lie, and all of the lies have bad consequences. Susanna lies to her parents, Ann Putnam and the gaggle of girls lie about seeing witches, and Tituba and Abigail Hobbs lie that they are witches.

First, Susanna lies to her mother about delivering goods to the poor. “Mama would

“‘Tituba say she been meddling in the black arts.’ ‘It is what the reverend wanted to hear. When I told him such, he stop beating Tituba.’” (116) Tituba claims that she is a witch, so that she will not be physically abused. Tituba then tells a big lie about witches in this town to save her own skin, but she starts a mad witch hunt in the town of Salem. Tituba claims “ that there were more witches in Salem then just she and Osbourne and Good. but she did not know their names.” (120) This makes the townspeople distrust each other and give the girls more power because, the townspeople want to accuse anything in order to keep themselves safe. Abigail Hobbs on the other hand, lies about being a witch to get more attention. “‘Oh yes. She’s confessed to being a witch. And she’s glad of it too. Never have I seen one so glad. She came prancing upstairs to see me. She was downstairs telling the patrons that she signed the Devil’s book.’” (137) She also planned this out because the book says, “‘I confess to the sin of witchcraft,’ Abigail Hobbs said in a firm voice that never wavered.” (138) Instead of letting this whole witchcraft business die down, she feeds the flames with