Week Five: Witches and Women

For this week I read the book Black Maria. The women portrayed in this story are Archetypes versus stereotypes. This is for a few reasons. A stereotypical witch (at least for american culture) is a woman with extraordinary powers of the supernatural. This sounds like foil to the witches in the story, but this isn't the case. A typical stereotyped witch is one that wears the infamous black cloak, aged face, and overall dark appearance. Tied in with this is the vile personality of a witch, they are mean and vile in nature. Aunt Maria herself doesn't follow this same formula, entirely. She is the wolf in sheep's clothing, she gives off the appearance of a different archetype: the grandmother. She appears sweet and innocent at first, but once the story unfolds she begins to show her true nature. She isn't an outright devious character at first, she doesn't have the appearance or mindset of the wicked witch of the west, but her choices and control through the book show where her true powers are. She gains control of people through manipulation, in doing so she takes control of the town she lives in. The parties themselves are a good example of this, as these women meet at the same time on the same day for the same event. They talk and gossip and all seems normal on the outside. It would appear everyone on the inside is ignorant to her powers, as if she has moved in slowly without any attention noticed to it. It isn't until Meg and her brother move in that someone notices that there is something amok in this small town. She is a new form of archetypal witch, one in which she possesses the familiar qualities of supernatural elements but with the appearance of an innocent old woman.