Although Tutuola includes numerous proverbs and proverbial references in Witch-Herbalist, as in his other narratives, they are not used to reinforce a consistent moral message. Rather, they are used in a variety of narrative contexts to support different moral values, instead of as chapter headings and reinforcements of Tutuola's major moral messages, as in Ajaiyi and His Inherited Poverty. Good and evil, right and wrong, are not consistently defined in Witch-Herbalist.

Witch-Herbalist, like all of Tutuola's narratives, combines elements of Yoruba oral literature with the realities of the modern world. The contemporary political world is evident from the opening sentences of the narrative…. However, contemporary politics are not as explicitly a part of the action in Witch-Herbalist as in Ajaiyi and His Inherited Poverty, although they are implicitly a part of the background of the action. There are numerous references to townspeople and "wild" people of the jungle...