Pride vs. Humility Theme Analysis

Ti-Jean and His Brothers is a fable set in the Caribbean in which the Devil poses a challenge to three brothers. The Devil promises to grant wealth and property to whichever of the brothers is able to make him angry. But the other side of the deal is that the Devil will eat the brothers whom he is able to make angry. Ti-Jean, the youngest of the three brothers, is the only one who successfully defeats the Devil in this challenge. His older brothers, Mi-Jean and Gros Jean, only lose to the Devil because of their pride—they want to prove that they can succeed at the impossible tasks the Devil assigns them, whereas Ti-Jean doesn’t care about proving to himself or others that he is capable of completing such tasks. By highlighting the difference between Ti-Jean’s humble nature and his brothers’ pride, Walcott emphasizes the importance of humility.

In disguise, the Devil sends Gros Jean to work on a sugar plantation, where the Devil himself is the owner. Proud of his legendary strength, Gros-Jean wants to prove that he can endure the plantation’s strenuous working conditions. When Gros Jean takes a smoke break from his hard work, the Devil, disguised as the Planter, comes up to Gros Jean and criticizes him for taking a break. Gros Jean, who doesn’t know that the Planter is the Devil in disguise, wants to earn the praise of his boss and wants him to acknowledge how much he has already accomplished, saying, “I do more work than most, right?” Here, Gros Jean makes it evident that he wishes to be recognized for his hard work and superiority to others. Prior to this moment, he has continuously bragged about his “arm of iron,” thinking that his strength will promise him success. But the Planter continues to hint that Gros Jean isn’t working hard enough, manipulatively telling Gros Jean to go ahead and have his smoke but then reminding him, “the harder you work the more” the Planter himself makes—implying that the Planter will value him more if he works even harder. Ultimately, Gros Jean becomes angry because the Planter won’t acknowledge how much work he has already done. In this way, Gros Jean’s pride—his identification with being strong, and with being able to get his work done—causes him to stay in a frustrating work environment simply because he wants to prove his superior strength. If Gros Jean weren’t attached to proving how strong and hardworking he was, he wouldn’t be upset at the Planter’s implication that he should work more. Therefore, Gros Jean’s pride leads to his undoing. He gets angry with the Planter—the Devil in disguise—and so loses the bet, because the Planter’s implication that he should work even harder wounds his pride. 

Mi-Jean is harder for the Devil to beat, but ultimately the Devil is able to take advantage of Mi-Jean’s pride surrounding his intellect. Mi-Jean resolves not to speak to the Devil at all in order to protect himself from getting angry. However, when the Devil begins to talk about his belief that “A man is no better than an animal,” Mi-Jean gets defensive. Always reading, Mi-Jean thinks of himself as an intellectual, and it is clear that he is attached to his identity as an intelligent person. At the Devil’s insistence that man is no more intelligent than animal, Mi-Jean eventually loses his temper, arguing with the Devil that man is, in fact, divine. His pride causes him to defend the idea that is the basis of his sense of self-worth, which ultimately leads him to lose the Devil’s challenge.

Ti-Jean, the youngest of the brothers, is unattached to any particular identity—he has neither particular strength nor particular intellect, and so he is not burdened by the desire to prove them. This humility is what allows him to defeat the Devil. When Ti-Jean leaves home to try and beat the Devil, his mother worries for him. “Never proven your self / In battle or in wisdom / I have kept you to my breast,” she tells her youngest son. Here, Ti-Jean’s mother worries that because he has no specific talents, he will be unable to face the Devil. However, his two older brothers lost to the Devil precisely because they had “proven” themselves in battle and wisdom, respectively, and were attached to the idea of beating the Devil with those skills. The fact that Gros Jean and Mi-Jean had proven themselves led them to be prideful, which made them vulnerable to the Devil’s manipulation. The Devil tries to make Ti-Jean angry by assigning him impossible menial tasks, such as counting all of the sugar leaves on his plantation. Gros Jean’s inability to perform a similar task makes him angry, as he prides himself on his strength and wishes to prove his ability to the Devil. However, Ti-Jean has no such attachment, and instead orders the workers on the plantation to burn it down. Because Ti-Jean is not preoccupied with proving himself to the Devil or measuring up to the standards the Devil creates for him, he does not get angry like his brothers. His lack of response, in turn, angers the Devil—and so Ti-Jean wins the bet.

Walcott demonstrates the dangers of pride in the play by showing it as what causes the two older brothers to succumb to the Devil’s manipulation. Gros Jean and Mi-Jean’s pride leads them to want to prove that they measure up to the standards and expectations set by the Devil. Their egos are so inflated that they don’t stop to wonder whether it’s really worth it to try and prove themselves to the Devil. However, Ti-Jean’s lack of pride allows him to discern that he doesn’t actually need to prove himself to the Devil, and to see that the whole system the Devil set up is unfair and needs to be destroyed.