The New Witch in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon and God Help the Child

This paper deals with the concept of the Crone and how, historically, the advent of patriarchy changed the roles and treatment of old females, disempowering, demonizing, and making them invisible. In Song of Solomon and God Help the Child, Morrison empowers the role of the aging woman. She uses mythic and fairy-tale intertexts (especially, the Greek Goddess Circe and the witch in "Hansel and Gretel") to depict the new Western Witch. Her New Witch counteracts the patriarchal image of the old female as ugly and evil, like the fairy-tale witch, and restores the strong and wise Crone to her rightful place of honor and respect.