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analysis of gloria naylor's mama day
analysis of gloria naylor's mama day
analysis of gloria naylor's mama day
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Gloria Naylor's Mama Day
It is impossible to interpret Gloria Naylor’s 1988 novel, Mama Day, in one way. There are multiple standpoints that a reader can take in explaining various events that occur throughout the book, as well as different ways that the characters in the book interpret these events. The author never fully clarifies many questions that the story generates so as to leave the readers with the opportunity to answer them based on their own personal experiences and beliefs. The multiplicity of perspectives in Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day is embodied in the legend of Sapphira Wade and the dynamics between logic and the supernatural and between George and Cocoa.
Sapphira Wade is a character that Naylor uses as a tool to immediately present the theme of multiple perspectives. Sapphira, who was brought to the island of Willow Springs as a slave in 1819, is at the top of the Day family tree. Through time her legacy had transformed to the point that her true identity became more of a matter of opinion than a matter of fact. Even the simple matter of the appearance of her skin becomes so distorted through the time span of a few generations that each member of the Willow Springs community describes her complexion differently. In regards to her supernatural attributes, members of the community portray Sapphira as being able to “walk through a lightning storm without being touched” and “use the heat of lightning to start the kindling going under her medicine pot: depending upon which of [them] takes a mind to her” (Naylor 3). It is up to the reader to decide which viewpoints to accept about Sapphira. These varying views on Sapphira’s identity provide the reader with immediate evidence of the theme of multiple tr...
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...it’s not as if [they] were dressing to petition the pope” (Naylor 230). Of course Cocoa’s perception of the situation was quite different: “I had to be perfect that evening” she says (Naylor 233).
Both George and Cocoa feel as if the discrepancy was the fault of the other. Their attitudes regarding the situation that night are completely different.
Mama Day is filled with situations in which the theme of multiplicity of perception arises. Various types of readers can interpret these situations in ways they feel are appropriate, just as different characters tend to have different perceptions of things based on their own values and ways of thinking. The important thing is that the reader does not forget that there is, in fact, more than one way to view these situations, and ignoring any one of them can take away from the worth of the book.
George and Ophelia, two characters in Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day, have a complex yet intimate relationship. They meet in New York where they both live. Throughout their hardships, Ophelia and George stay together and eventually get married. Ophelia often picks fights with George to test his love for her, and time after time, he proves to her that he does love her. Gloria Naylor uses George as a Christ figure in his relationship with Ophelia to eventually save her life.
In the novel All Over but the Shoutin’ Rick Bragg shows the love and devotion of what every mother should have through his mother. The only woman that Bragg truly cares for and takes time out of his day is for his mother Margaret Marie. Bragg tries to do the best for his mother and tries his best to make her proud of him. Bragg learned early in life that his mother strived to give her children everything possible. For Mrs. Bragg her children are the reason she wakes up everyday and tries to make a better life for them.
In all, Tademy does a great job in transporting her readers back to the 1800s in rural Louisiana. This book is a profound alternative to just another slave narrative. Instead of history it offers ‘herstory’. This story offers insight to the issues of slavery through a women’s perspective, something that not so many books offer. Not only does it give readers just one account or perspective of slavery but it gives readers a take on slavery through generation after generation. From the early days of slavery through the Civil War, a narrative of familial strength, pride, and culture are captured in these lines.
Mama, as a member of an older generation, represents the suffering that has always been a part of this world. She spent her life coexisting with the struggle in some approximation to harmony. Mama knew the futility of trying to escape the pain inherent in living, she knew about "the darkness outside," but she challenged herself to survive proudly despite it all (419). Mama took on the pain in her family in order to strengthen herself as a support for those who could not cope with their own grief. Allowing her husband to cry for his dead brother gave her a strength and purpose that would have been hard to attain outside her family sphere. She was a poor black woman in Harlem, yet she was able to give her husband permission for weakness, a gift that he feared to ask for in others. She gave him the right to a secret, personal bitterness toward the white man that he could not show to anyone else. She allowed him to survive. She marveled at his strength, and acknowledged her part in it, "But if he hadn't had...
In “Soldier’s home” Krebs is completely different from when he left for the marines. He no longer sees the world the same. Instead he sees it as a place stuck in time with very little changes. He has to lie about things that happen in war to be able to stomach what truly happen. “His town had heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities. Krebs found that to be listened to at all he had to lie, and after he had done this twice he, too, had a reaction against the war and against talking about it”(1).
The initial reaction I received from reading Soldier's Home, and my feelings about Soldier's Home now are not the same. Initially, I thought Harold Krebs is this soldier who fought for two years, returns home, and is disconnected from society because he is in a childlike state of mind, while everyone else has grown up. I felt that Krebs lost his immature years, late teens to early 20's, because he went from college to the military. I still see him as disconnected from society, because there isn't anyone or anything that can connect him to the simple life that his once before close friends and family are living. He has been through a traumatic experience for the past two years, and he does not have anyone genuinely interested in him enough to take the time to find out what's going on in his mind and heart. Krebs is in a battle after the battle.
George and Ophelia grow up in significantly different environments with exposure to vastly dissimilar experiences; their diverse backgrounds have a profound impact on the way they interpret and react to situations as adults. George and Ophelia both grow up without their parents, but for different reasons. George grows up at the Wallace P. Andrews Shelter for Boys in New York. The Shelter’s strict surroundings did not provide the warm and inviting atmosphere that a mother strives for in a home. The employees at the Shelter are not “loving people,” (p. 23) but they are devoted to their job, and the boys. At a young age, Ophelia loses her mother. We learn very little about her apparently absent father. Mama Day and Abigail raise Ophelia. Abigail provides a source of comfort and love for Ophelia as she fulfills the role of mother figure. Mama day, Ophelia’s great aunt, acts more as a father figure. “If Grandma had been there, she would have held me when I broke down and cry. Mama Day only said that for a long time there would be something to bring on tears aplenty.” (p. 304). Ophelia grows up on the small island of Willow Springs. Everyone knows each other and their business, in the laid-back island community. The border between Georgia and South Carolina splits down the middle of the island. Instead of seeing any advantage to belonging to either state, the townspeople would prefer to operate independently. For George and Ophelia, the differences in their backgrounds will have a tremendous impact on many facets of their adult lives.
First in “Everyday Use” you recognize the differences in all three women throughout the story. The mama
In everyday life, we take the time to network with different people to establish a kind of relationship, and take time to get to know others personally to establish a more romantic relationship. However, in Soldier’s Home, the narrator tells us that Krebs would not (or could not) make the effort to establish relationships because the army had taught him that he did not need to have a girl in his life. He did not want to get into the “intrigue” and “politics”, the “complexity”, the “courting”, he did not want to spend the time because in Germany it was much more different; the girls would just come and there wouldn’t have to be any conversing. His mother at one point even mentions a Charles Simmons, who is just Krebs age, and the “other boys” who are getting married and settling down. She doesn’t mention at all whether Simmons and the other boys also returned from war but, seems to encourage her son to work towards also settling back. If Simmons and the other boys were did go and return from the military could they have easily adjusted from the military lifestyle because they did not spend that time abroad? Or were they at an advantage when they returned because everyone wanted to walk about the war, making it almost therapeutical. Perhaps this is why Krebs continues this cycled routine he has and why he withholds or lacks
Paul has four main reasons why multitasking is a bad habit of a person when doing school homework. The first reason is doing assignment will take longer to accomplish because there are many distraction activities occurring. Paul uses the example of students using cell phones during class, where if you are paying attention to your phone, then you are not paying attention in class. The result causes students to re-examine their assignment to help themselves familiarize the material. The second reason is students can be tired and sleepy, which can make more mistakes on their assignment as they multitask. The third reason is students lose memory on the assignment they were given which divides their attention from doing other things at the same time. The fourth reason is when we are distracted, the information we received is processed differently making ourselves unable to concentrate. The last reason is multitasking can decrease student's school grades. According to the Rosen study, students who spend fifteen minutes on Facebook will have a lower grade. As comparison learning was more effective in the past, resulting in a new generation filled with
David’s illustrations shows an intricate but vivid and painful memory of his childhood. His mother, Betty influenced his life in a way that he could not understand at the time. He did not understand the reasons behind some of her attitudes or the peculiar way that she communicated with him. In the first pages of the book David stated: “Mama had her little cough… once
The story of Soldier’s Home by Ernest Hemingway talks about Krebs who came back home
Radio, during the 1920s, was an invention that brought the means of transporting messages and music, quickly, throughout the country. The first radios were made of crystal and were complex (“Radio Technology”).
Judd, Terry. "Making sense of multitasking: The role of Facebook." Computers & Education 70 (2014): 194+. Academic OneFile. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.
I can distinctly recall spending many early mornings with my mother as a very young child. Endlessly engraved in my memory is aroma of coffee and sprinting down the stairs to my basement to collect my mothers’ uniform from the dryer. And then with a kiss laid upon my forehead, she would drop my siblings and I off at my grandparents’ home to begin her ten, sometimes twelve hour shifts as an ultrasound technologist. Then just as I can vividly recount my mother’s morning routine, I still can picture the evenings I spent with my mother to the same caliber. Simply put, my mother is a wonderful cook. And thus, each evening she would prepare a different meal. And while the meals always varied, her superior cooking skills never faltered. Despite her hectic work schedule, never once did I witness my mother skip cooking dinner for myself, my four elder brothers, or my father.