Brown Girl in the Ring

“Among Caribbean people, bush medicine used to be something private, but living in the Burn changed all the rules.”

After the Riots, the poor Caribbean residents living in the Burn could no longer access Western medicine as readily as they once did. They must rely on bush medicine instead, relying on Mami’s knowledge of traditional remedies to heal them. What was once passed down within families has become public knowledge once Mami’s cures are known to be more effective than most modern medicine.

“Ti-Jeanne couldn’t see her own death, or Baby’s. She couldn’t see Tony’s death, not anyone close to her.”

Ti-Jeanne’s power as a seer allows her to see everyone’s death but those who are closest to her. It is implied that her power is nascent at this stage in the novel. Her struggle to see herself, including her own death, becomes an important part of her personal and spiritual growth throughout the novel.

“Ti-Jeanne felt the gears slipping between the two worlds.”

When Ti-Jeanne first meets the Jab-Jab, who she will later realize is the Prince of Cemetery’s other form, she experiences dual realities. In one reality, African spirits exist in Toronto, and in another, these spirits are unseen by other humans. This moment foreshadows Ti-Jeanne’s ongoing struggle to navigate her seer gift to summon spirits and reconcile her relationship to both the spiritual and secular world.