The Witch of Blackbird Pond Themes

Ah, the search for identity. It’s a common enough theme in young adult literature. Kit Tyler begins The Witch of Blackbird Pond very sure of who she is: the granddaughter of Sir Francis Tyler, an...

Is home a person? A place? A feeling? Over the course of The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Kit Tyler has to figure out that question for herself. When Kit arrives in Wethersfield, home is a far-away tro...

What does it mean to be a social outcast? And why is it not only cruel, but dangerous to cast someone out of society? Further, what happens when a society refuses to accept differences among its me...

Religion is an important aspect of the world of The Witch of Blackbird Pond: it organizes, and in some instances divides, the society of Wethersfield, Connecticut. There are three main factions fea...

As almost everyone knows, politics can be a divisive issue – and are best not talked about in polite company. In The Witch of Blackbird Pond, this point is proven repeatedly. The two main politic...

The Witch of Blackbird Pond is the tale of two cultures clashing. Both the aristocratic Kit and the pious Puritans will have to stop judging each other based on outward appearances and expectations...

The Witch of Blackbird Pond presents a distinct vision of colonial life in late 17th-century America. Through the novel’s vivid descriptions, we get a glimpse of the landscape, the people, their...

In The Witch of Blackbird Pond, education can mean different things to different people. For Kit Tyler, it’s reading Shakespeare in her grandfather’s library. For John Holbrook, it’s burning...

For a girl in the 17th-century, marriage was the major aim of her life. Her role as a wife and mother would come to wholly define her as a person. Needless to say, the question of marriage was huge...

The saying goes that “You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.” Is this true? In The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Kit is orphaned when her grandfather dies. She goes to the...

Judge not lest ye be judged? These words would prove to be good advice for the characters of The Witch of Blackbird Pond. Everyone is passing judgment on everyone else. The judgment culminates when...