The Jumbies

Corinne La Mer is the 11-year-old protagonist of The Jumbies. She lives with her father in a house at the edge of the island’s mahogany forest, which is known for being home to the jumbies. At first, the forest does not bother Corinne, primarily because it supplies rich soil for her garden and beloved orange tree. Corinne loves to grow things, and she is particularly talented at growing oranges; hers are the sweetest on her island, and she sells them at a local outdoor marketplace. Corinne learned about growing things from her now-deceased mother, Nicole La Mer, whom Severine later reveals was a jumbie in human form. As the novel unfolds, Corinne embracing her part jumbie identity becomes an important arc for her character.

For a significant portion of the novel, Corinne does not believe in the existence of jumbies or magic. Changing her mind about this, however, is an important step in her journey of self-acceptance. It takes Corinne’s escape from a douen attack at the end of Chapter 16 to finally shake her skepticism in the existence of jumbies. Corinne’s slow acceptance of magic and jumbies denotes her penchant for logic and the explainable; initially, she believes in coincidence over magic.