Point of View

The story is told from two points of view, that of the narrator and that of Hannah Kemhuff herself. The story is told in the first person by the apprentice. The narrator is employed as an apprentice to Tante Rosie, an old black woman versed in the black magic art of "rootworking." She begins by giving a brief narrative of the day she met Hannah Kemhuff. The narrator is a bit overwhelmed by the experience, because she is new to the art of "rootworking" and has not memorized many of the essential prayers and curses. In between the narrator's setting of the story, Hannah Kemhuff begins to tell Tante Rosie of the incident with Ms. Sadler that crushed her spirit and sent her life plummeting in a downward spiral. It is at this time that the first-person narrative switches from the apprentice's perspective to Hannah's. At...