The Bewitching

“She even cast a little spell she’d learned, summoning him. She did not often indulge in such practices, for fear of what others would think if she admitted she believed in folk magic.”

Alba believes in the power of spells and folk magic—knowledge she inherited from her father’s side of the family. Within the world of this novel, such practices are associated with the rural, working classes and are seen by affluent, urban characters as “backwards,” highlighting The Tension Between Folk Wisdom and Modern Beliefs. Alba’s use of folk magic roots her within the cultural landscape of the country rather than the city and marks her as a figure who respects traditional knowledge.

“What can you learn on a farm except the uneducated nonsense that the laborers repeat?”

This line, spoken by Arturo, helps to characterize him as disdainful of folk wisdom, reinforcing a central tension in the novel. Arturo received a formal education and figured out early in his life that he was better suited to the city than the country. He learned to center Enlightenment values, high art, and the faculty of reason rather than the kinds of folk traditions that Alba values. For Alba, folk magic represents a link to past generations of her family and the culture that produced her. Arturo, however, dismisses folk magic as a set of practices developed by people without access to “real” knowledge about subjects such as science and philosophy, emphasizing his hubris and desire for dominance and control.

“I’m afraid I believe in myself and myself alone. I always did, even when I was a young girl. I used to make fun of poor Virginia. I teased her about her ghosts in chains. No, I couldn’t understand her paintings or her ghost stories.”

This passage emphasizes Carolyn as isolated by her desire for power, allowing it to pit her against other women rather than connecting to and being supported by a female community. Like other affluent figures in the novel, she claims not to believe in folk magic, ghosts, or the supernatural, but secretly attempts to harness its power to reify her own privilege. Her demise in the novel’s climax suggests that it is her refusal to align herself with women’s legacy of collective empowerment and agency that ultimately defeats her.

“The plot of Tremblay’s novel, which was set in seventeenth century New England, revolved around a circle of young women who believed that one of them was a witch. The novel culminates with the disappearance of one of the women. Her novella, ‘All Saints’ Day,’ also involved witchcraft, and her short stories often starred young, unhappy protagonists who met tragic ends.”

Moreno-Garcia uses the device of Minerva’s thesis to provide expository information from the past that eventually proves to be the key to Minerva’s own bewitching. Minerva is drawn to Tremblay’s novel in part because of her interest in the gendered politics of reading and the “lost” female writers whose work is eclipsed by their male counterparts. But she is also drawn to Tremblay’s book because of the relationship between its subject matter and Tremblay’s own life. Minerva’s own family history is full of stories of witchcraft and the supernatural, and she is interested in the way that storytelling preserves family legend and connects individuals to the collective unconscious.

“Back then, affluent people still took a dim view of folks who embodied such traits: new money, foreign roots, and a lack of a good Protestant heritage would keep you out of the tonier country clubs, and Carolyn was more snobbish than your average girl.”

This novel repeatedly engages with the impact that social class has on individuals and their relationships. There are multiple characters whose positions within the upper classes render them both judgmental of the working classes and less attuned to the folk traditions Minerva’s family embraces as important parts of their history. Tremblay characterizes Carolyn as thinking herself “above” the interest in the supernatural, positioning her as one of the novel’s key points of engagement with the politics of class.

“She was alive. I’ve never met someone as alive as her.”

Through Tremblay’s perspective, the novel characterizes Ginny as a vivacious individual who is not afraid to embrace her authentic self even if it renders her a social outcast. Ginny is so “alive” that her ghost remains on campus even after Carolyn kills her, and she comes to Minerva’s aid at the end of the novel.

“I love the opening pages, it’s Tremblay, through and through. But it reminds me of some stories my great-grandmother used to tell.”

Minerva’s interest in the idea of a “collective unconscious” emphasizes folk wisdom as a legacy of female empowerment shared and passed down by a community of women. For Minerva in particular, the collective unconscious lends credence to folk beliefs because it shows the way that different cultures, independently of one another, arrive at some of the same rituals, practices, and beliefs.

“For Ginny ghosts were not frightful apparitions dangling their chains in the air. She believed in communion with the departed and found comfort in her writings and her sketches, which were supposedly influenced by invisible hands.”

Tremblay’s writings highlight Ginny’s belief in the supernatural as a positive presence in her life rather than a fearful or dangerous one, subverting traditional portrayals of ghosts and haunting in the horror genre. She believes that spirits from beyond communicate with her in part through her visual art and writing, aligning them with a creative force rather than a destructive one. While Ginny’s father and Edgar are sure that Ginny’s beliefs unsettle and upset her, Ginny views her communication with spirits as a grounding force.

“She admired, even envied people like Hideo who could swiftly navigate the world, smiling and laughing and making friends while she was coiled tight inside her head. These days, she felt even more removed from everything, the silence of the dorm and the summer heat that spread across campus lulling her into a restless half sleep.”

Across her arc, Minerva grows from a place of relative isolation to a deep connection with a legacy of female witches through her work. Although capable of close relationships, like her friendship with Hideo or the bond she shared with Nana Alba, she’s characterized as a solitary, introspective individual. Part of what draws her to academia is the enjoyment she derives from spending time alone at her work. While her quiet, studied manner helps her to devote enough time and attention to her research, it also makes her ill-suited for campus social life.

“She remembered when her father had gone out to the fields and warned nahuals to leave their crops alone, sometimes dragging an old iron pot with him to frighten them away, for they detested certain metals.”

Moreno-Garcia steeps her novel in real-world Indigenous folklore. For example, nahuales, beings that can transform into animals, are associated with both benevolent protection and malevolent sorcery. Her depiction of teyolloquanis references the “heart eaters” of Indigenous Mexican folklore. The author is known for novels that make use of Indigenous and Mexican history, even as they depict fantastical, supernatural happenings and experiences.

“Other books with similar themes also made an appearance: A History of Witchcraft Lore, The Witchcraft Delusion of 1692, The Witch-Cult in Western Massachusetts, and many more. These titles matched the ones Ginny was reading in 1934, before her disappearance.”

Ginny’s research into the supernatural acts as a kind of map for Minerva’s own investigation, emphasizing the notion of a collective unconscious and the transference of folk beliefs from one cultural space to another via storytelling. Minerva’s thesis, like Tremblay’s writing, acts as its own record for future generations.

“Do you think it’s easy living like this, Alba? I am a widow. I’ve lost a son. I must take care of my younger children and be both mother and father to them on a farm that is beset with debts and misfortunes.”

While the novel positions Alba and her mother on opposite sides of a divide between folk wisdom and modern beliefs, Moreno-Garcia humanizes Alba’s mother through the realities of life as a widowed woman attempting to manage a farm on her own in a rapidly modernizing Mexico. However, rather than uniting with her daughter to access the power and agency of the women who came before them, Alba’s mother aligns herself with Arturo, allowing herself to be used as a pawn in his plans.

“It’s a family tradition, you know, to stand together with someone you can’t stand.”

Minerva’s friendship with Noah contributes to the novel’s complex examination of class structures and classism. Although affluent characters like Arturo and Carolyn believe their norms and traditions are superior to those of the working classes, they are often revealed as deeply problematic. Within Noah’s family, for example, marriage is “strategic” rather than the result of love and affection. Various members of Noah’s family marry for wealth and power, but these unions are seldom happy.

“Every fairy tale has a message hidden in it, a moral that you figure out.”

For Minerva, family history and folklore are more than fanciful stories. She makes use of the wisdom of the past to solve present-day problems. In so doing, she maintains a point of connection to the past generations of women in her family. She is ultimately able to defeat Carolyn because she listened well to Alba’s stories, emphasizing women’s legacy of empowerment and agency as a central theme in the novel.

“The witch would be destroyed. She’d kill it, even if she had to vanquish it all alone, all by herself.”

The female figures in this novel are characterized by their agency and autonomy, even in the face of difficulty. Here, Alba resolves to kill the teyolloquani on her own because Valentín has died, and she knows that she cannot count on family support. Alba remains resolute despite the danger of the situation and the setbacks she has encountered. In these passages, the strength of character that Minerva will come to associate with her Nana Alba is already evident, even though she is still a young woman.

“You simply live through it.”

This piece of advice given to a young Minerva by her Nana Alba becomes a mantra that Minerva returns to in times of crisis, drawing strength and power from Alba’s legacy. The mantra embodies Alba’s spirit of strength and agency and helps Minerva to tackle the problems in her own life..

“The police didn’t care what happened to folks like Santiago. He was just a nil, a nobody. They didn’t push too hard with Ginny’s case, and she was a wealthy girl, do you think they would even bother to open a case file for someone like Santiago?”

Santiago, a peripheral character in the novel, helps underscore Moreno-Garcia’s thematic engagement with racial and economic prejudice. Like many of the other working-class characters, Santiago experiences discrimination at the hands of the affluent. Carolyn and her wealthy family deliberately seek out victims whose marginalization renders them under-resourced, and whose disappearances are ignored by society and law enforcement.

“He smells of carrion if you wash away the cologne.”

Arturo’s destruction in the novel’s climax acts as a thematic indictment of wealth and privilege. Although Arturo fancies himself superior to men like Valentín, his hubris leads him to believe he’s too powerful to be defeated. This passage uses symbolism to communicate Arturo’s inner ugliness, noting that the cologne that he wears covers up the rot at the core of his personality.

“Ginny, forgive me.”

Tremblay’s apology to Ginny underscores the ways internalized misogyny threatens women’s solidarity and mutual support. Tremblay acknowledges that even she—who was in love with Ginny, valued her as a friend, and tried to believe Ginny’s insistence that something had bewitched her—acknowledges that she bowed to Edgar and Carolyn’s assertions that Ginny’s distress was a result of mental illness. By placing the supernatural at the center of all of her work following Ginny’s death, Tremblay spends the rest of her life attempting to make amends to her friend.

“The person who came up with a different theory was Betty, because she had a writer’s imagination. Dear Betty, always with her fanciful tales.”

Carolyn’s dismissal of Tremblay’s writing as “fanciful” highlights her technique of impugning the reputation of people she seeks to discredit to reify her own power. When Ginny went missing, Carolyn spread the rumor that she’d run away with Santiago. Here, she dismisses Tremblay’s very real worries by citing her work as a creator of stories.

“The Ouija board and the tarot cards. Tom loved to do readings. He thought it brought him closer to the people he was studying.”

The connection Minerva makes between Thomas and Ginny through their shared interest in art and spirituality acts as a propulsive element in the narrative, driving her investigation forward toward the climax. Thomas’s interest in the Ouija board and tarot cards highlights modern tools of divination used to commune with the dead and divine the future, providing a contemporary parallel to Ginny’s plotline in the past.

“This was my father’s land and his father’s before that. I hope it’ll be my siblings’ one day.”

Alba is passionate about preserving her family’s history. Although the more affluent look down on her family because she is working class, Alba knows that her family is strong, loving, and has much to pass down from one generation to the next. The land functions symbolically in this passage, representing all the good that Alba inherits from the previous generation and what she will pass on to the next generation.

“Part of her still loved him, wanted him. He was the ideal of the man that she had imagined.”

Throughout The Bewitching, Moreno-Garcia positions sexual desire as a kind of Achilles heel, leaving the characters vulnerable to danger. Alba is initially drawn to Arturo because of his beauty and wealth and all that he can offer her, even though her attraction to him orients her toward a set of values that conflict with her own and seeks to disempower her. Arturo is manipulative, uncaring, and has no respect for culture or tradition. Alba’s ability to push back against this attraction and weaponize Arturo’s desire for her is what allows her to defeat him.