Ti-Jean and His Brothers: Prologue Summary & Analysis

On the night of the new moon, Frog begins to tell a story: When the moon is full, he says, it’s possible to see on its surface not a man, but a boy, burdened by a bundle of sticks on his back and accompanied by a small dog. This is Ti-Jean, “the hunter,” whom God rewarded with a place on the moon because Ti-Jean beat the Devil. In life, Ti-Jean had a mother and two older brothers: Gros Jean, whose arm “was hard as iron,” but who wasn’t the smartest knife in the drawer; and Mi-Jean, not as strong as Gros Jean but much smarter, whose head was buried in his books.

Ti-Jean’s mother, whose husband passed away, was very poor, too old and weak to protect her home and provide for her family. Still, she has great faith in God. The four of them lived in a wood and thatch little house on the top of a mountain where it was always raining and very cold. What’s worse, the Devil himself used to live on that very mountaintop. As Frog speaks, the Devil appears before him, saying, in French, “Give me a child for dinner! […] One, two, three little children!” Ti-Jean and his family were terrified of the Devil—he had skin “powdery as leprosy” and a dead expression.

With his nose in his books, Mi-Jean is useless for fishing, and Gros Jean simply doesn’t have the brains. Unable to find any food for themselves, Ti-Jean’s family starves while, in Mother’s words, “the planter is eating from plates painted golden, forks with silver tongues, the brown flesh of birds, and the white flesh of fish.” While Gros Jean and Mi-Jean have made sincere, if futile, efforts at finding food, Ti-Jean admits in French that he hasn’t done anything that day.

The boys’ mother doesn’t seem all too worried that they don’t have anything to eat. “Wait, and God will send us something,” she counsels her sons. But Gros Jean responds, “God forget where he put us.” Mi-Jean, equally cynical, says, “God too irresponsible.”

Suddenly, Bolom appears outside the family’s door. They hear the sound of a child’s cry, and Mother fears it is one of the Devil’s “angels.” Distraught, she tells her son that she prayed all day for God to help them, and instead she is sent devil spawn. To protect their home, Gros Jean and Mi-Jean say, “Let two of our fingers form one crucifix!” Ti-Jean, on the other hand, silently steps outside. Their mother demands of Bolom: “Spirit that is outside, with the voice of a child, crying out in the rain, what do you want from the poor?”

Bolom asks the boys’ mother to send her oldest son outside, for the boys “must die in that order.” And he asks that Ti-Jean go back into the house. Ti-Jean does, but inside, a strange light shines through and the family sees Bolom within their home. They try to catch him, but can’t. The mother tells Bolom that she has done him no harm, but Bolom replies, “A woman did me harm, called herself mother, the fear of her hatred, a cord round my throat!” To this, the mother responds that perhaps it is better never have been born into such poverty and misery. Still, she wishes to comfort Bolom, and offers to hug him. Bolom recoils, saying he will never live until her sons die. Bolom hears the Devil’s voice from outside. He says in French, “Do what I commanded you!”

So the Bolom enters the house and delivers his message: “The Devil my master, who owns half the world, […] has done all that is evil,” he says, listing the many evils, such as war, disease, and corruption, that the Devil has invented. Still, the Bolom says, the Devil isn’t satisfied—he can’t enjoy the vices he has created, and he longs to be human. So he has sent a challenge to Ti-Jean and his brothers: any human who can make the Devil angry will “never more know hunger, but fulfillment, wealth, [and] peace.” But, any human who accepts the challenge but whom the Devil is able to provoke to anger will be eaten alive.  Outside, the family hears the Devil singing in French: “Give the Devil a child for dinner, one, two, three little children!”