Due by class time on Tuesday, October 9
After you've finished Mama Day, you will likely be left with many questions about why things turned out the way they did for Cocoa and George. For this response, I'd like for you to try to make some sense of the ending of the novel. Some things you might think about: were you surprised by the way things turned out? Why do you think Naylor ends the novel this way? How do you interpret the ending? How does the ending affect the way you view the rest of the novel?
You also have the option of writing in response to another idea that struck you as you read; the only stipulation is that you choose something we haven't already covered in class and that you deal with the last half of the book in some way.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
16 comments:
After reading a novel that contained many twists, turns, and unexpected happenings, I am not surprised that the novel ended with the death of a central character. I am, however, surprised by which character died. I was first expecting either Mama Day or Abigail to pass away before the novel was completed, seeing as how both of them were reaching an old age. Although Miranda seems to be a hardy little woman, we know that she feels the effects of her age. At one point, after having walked most of the day around the island, we see that she wonders “Which is worse, the dull stabbing pain from her spine to leg muscles or the grinding sound that the bones give out with each step she takes?”. Once Cocoa began to get quite ill, I was anticipating that she might pass away before the novel’s end. However, much to my surprise, and in a strange twist of events, it is her husband that dies.
While some portions of the ending events make sense, I still do not understand what Mama Day was sending George to retrieve from the hen coop. Perhaps Naylor purposely left it unknown, to allow the reader to form his or her own ideas of what he was sent for. I think that Naylor ended the novel this way to prove George’s love for his wife, as well as to provide a way for Cocoa to return back home to Willow Springs, if only for a brief period of time.
The ending definitely served to show me exactly how much Cocoa means to George and Mama Day. Miranda, who has practiced loving Cocoa in a serving way, rarely allowing herself to speak aloud the love that she has for her niece, finally tells George what she really feels. She explains, “I want you to hear me out. Baby Girl is the closest thing I have to calling a child my own…There ain’t a mama who coulda felt more pain or pride for her when she was coming up – do you understand?” Perhaps even more astonishing, we witness George, who has had such a difficult time grasping the magic and voodoo beliefs that are so present in Willow Springs, blindly follow Miranda’s directions to retrieve her something from the hen house. He is such a practical man, and believes that there is a concrete, matter-of-fact solution to any problem. This belief extends into his desire to get care for Cocoa. He wants nothing more than for her to see a “real” doctor, and to receive legitimate medical attention. Even though he doesn’t find what Mama Day sent him for, and instead goes off to die by Cocoa’s bedside, it is still incredible that he was willing to push aside his practicality and disbelief for a while and ultimately give his life so that Cocoa could be well again.
I was very happy to read the portion where Cocoa talks about George after his death. She remarries, but explains that he is “A good second-best…any man would have to come in second to you.” I would have viewed Cocoa and the novel very differently if I were not able to see her undying love and respect for George even after his death. The ending did make me view other portions a bit differently, however. I fully expected something to come of Cocoa’s recurring dream of George drowning in The Sound, but it did not seem to have any great significance, other than that George did indeed die, but in a very different way. Overall, I think the ending tied in very well with the rest of the story, explaining some things, and leaving others open to interpretation.
I have mixed emotions for the ending of Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day. While I believe that the novel did not tie up several of the loose ends it provided throughout the text, I also feel that this fact is essential to the novel itself. The lack of understanding by the readers of Mama Day is what makes the book so well done.
I am the type of person who reads an entire novel, including the preface. Therefore, after reading the introduction to this novel, I already knew that George died and Cocoa remarried. “…Yes, she tells him, there was a first husband- a stone city boy. How his name was George. But how Cocoa left, and he stayed”(p. 9). In my opinion, if the author is going to give away the ending of the novel in the preface, then the purpose to reading the novel is to find out the details. However, three hundred twelve pages later, and I am still at a lose for why George dies.
Furthermore, the novel indicates that the Day women lose the men they love. Within the first few pages, the women of the Day family are said to be hard and difficult. The novel explains this through the deaths of Hope, Peace, Peace again, and then the hard birth of Cocoa. However, upon the close of the novel, it is again unknown as to why the Day women must loose the men they love.
The opening of the novel also introduces the legend of Sapphira Wade. As the tale is drawn out in the story, by passing it on to George, several details are left unknown. At the close of the novel, the reader is still unsure of how the slaves really received the island land and why. Reasons for placing moss in the bottom of shoes walking through the cemetery and why exactly the other place is so feared is also left unknown. There are speculations for each of these tales and traditions, but no clear answer is given.
Although Mama Day comes to a close without closing any of the inner tales of the novel, I feel that this book ended the way it had to. The death of George, the chicken coop scene, the moss in the shoes, and the illness of Cocoa were all elements in the novel that presented the magical feel of this book. The spirit of Mama Day and Willow Springs were not put into words by Naylor. Rather, they were shown through the varying scenes in the book. The reader was not meant to understand or to receive clear cut rationales.
Furthermore, this book was written as a tale (hints the unknown third speaker). The tale of Cocoa’s visit from New York with George is being told parallel to the tale of Sapphira Wade. Stories that are passed on verbally fail to incorporate every detail. As years pass, the stories become legends with alternate endings and falsified happenings. Just like the legend of Sapphira Wade, the legend of Cocoa’s visit is no longer coherent. There are some pieces of the puzzle that have been forgotten or altered over the years. This explains another reason for the lack of explanation throughout the novel.
Overall, I feel that the ending and writing style of this novel were two important elements in the success of the book. George’s death was only necessary to create an ending to the tale of Cocoa’s visit. It also was used to create an additional example of mystical power for the reader. In my opinion, George was the one to die because he was the outsider. Willow Springs has been created in the reader’s mind as a magical place with powerful and spiritual residents. It is only fitting that George, the one who does not believe, is sacrificed.
Making sense of this ending is hard for me because I don’t really understand it. I interpret George dying as away for Naylor to show his love for Cocoa, and I see that she got remarried just as the book states. But I don’t understand what Mama Day could have done if George were to make it back from the chicken coop with anything. Did she just send him there to die?
I was supprised by the way things turned out. I had thought from the begenning of the novel that Mama Day would be the one to die in the end, but instead it was George. I was not supprised that Cocoa remarried because it seemed she always wanted to have children and she seemed to need someone to pay attention to her. I also enjoyed the part where she tells of how to new husband is a good second best to George, and Mama Day agrees. I believe that Naylor ended the novel this way because it keeps in line with the day women hurting their men, and it shows Cocoa in good light because it wasn’t her fault that George died. I think she did this to make the reader ask why and think about all of the unanswered questions.
The ending does not affect the way I veiw the novel. I still think everything makes sense the was it is, but I still want some questions answered. Why did George die? What had to be done to lift the curse on Cocoa besides George dying at her side? Whats with the moss in the shoes in the Graveyard? I think all of this is left to the open so that it seems more magical and mysterious just like the history of Willow Springs. I think this was a well written novel and enjoyed the read.
After completing Mamma Day, I was completely shocked at the way things turned out. First of all, I thought George was going to survive his heart rupturing episode and live in Willow Springs, while Cocoa moved back to New York. I did not think George would die because I thought at the beginning of the novel, he and Cocoa were telling the story of their relationship to a person in the present. Second, I was surprised that Cocoa recovered from Ruby’s “spell” because I thought that only George could heal her with Mama Day’s help. I kept thinking to myself, “Was it George’s willingness to sacrifice his own life for her that allows Cocoa to break away from her sickness?” Third, I was not expecting Little Caesar to die at such a young age after how much effort it took Bernice and Mama Day to bring him into the world. I was a little confused to exactly how he died. The novel states that “Folks is sure to disagree for years about what caused the death of Little Caesar” (Naylor 256). I wish Gloria Naylor would have vividly described the death of Little Caesar since she described his birth very clearly.
I think Gloria Naylor ends the novel in a way that closes up enough of the story for the readers, but leaves a little bit for the imagination. I think Naylor wants to show the readers that memories last a life time. For example, Cocoa gets married to a new man and has kids, yet her mind seems to travel back in time to when she was with George. Naylor writes that Cocoa’s son asks his mother how he got his name. This again reminds Cocoa of her relationship with George and how his presence will always live within her. Not only this, but other little things such as the city of New York and the Patriots football team will never let Cocoa forget her long lost love. She even mentions that her husband is “second best” compared to George. But Naylor also leaves some things unknown. Readers never find out who is the third narrator in the story. I think Naylor does this so that readers will reread the novel and search for hidden clues. Naylor ends the novel with Mama Day taking her last tastes of a slice of honeydew. Mama Day is the last person in the novel mentioned because it shows how her determination has allowed her to survive longer than anyone else in the novel.
I thought the ending of the story showed that everyone connected to the Day women lost someone they loved. Abigail and Miranda lost their mother and sister, Peace lost her daughter, and Cocoa lost George. But it seems that the reason all of them loose someone is because of their descendant Sapphira Wade. I believe that when Sapphira left her lover Bascombe, his grief was passed on to Sapphira’s descendants as a way of getting her back for all the pain she caused him. I also think I have discovered the reason Gloria Naylor placed so much emphasis on the moss in the shoes in the graveyard. I believe that the moss allowed a person to hear the voices of the people in the graveyard. The moss is a way of breaking the barrier between the living and the dead. The one thing that I could not interpret at the end of the novel was the importance of Cocoa’s dream of George drowning in The Sound. Gloria Naylor mentions this dream several times during the novel, but never seems to give the readers the true meaning of it. I guess that is another thing she leaves the reader’s mind to ponder over.
The ending of Mama Day allows me to see why certain events in the novel had to happen. Cocoa’s sickness allowed George to find out how much he truly cared about Cocoa and how much of his life he was willing to give up for her. In contrast, George’s death gives Cocoa a reason to name her first child after him and make her want to return back to Willow Springs. The ending of the novel definitely changed my opinion of Cocoa. When I first began reading the novel, I considered Cocoa to be a self-centered stubborn woman who never showed any emotions. However, the ending allowed me to see a softer side of Cocoa. Naylor portrays Cocoa crying, depressed, and confused towards George’s death, a picture reader’s could have never imagined at the beginning of the novel. Overall I think Gloria Naylor wrote the perfect ending for Mamma Day by closing the gaps on certain mysteries and leaving some open to the reader’s imagination.
Gloria Naylor sure put some serious twists on her novel, especially towards the end. These twists brought about many unanswered questions, meanwhile made sense of some other parts of the novel. At first I questioned Naylor’s decision to “twist” the novel with a death of a main character; however after researching the historical context of the novel, I found it quite ironic that it happened. It seems only a coincidence that Naylor chose the only male main character in the novel, George, to die at the end, but considering her devotion to the renaissance of black women, as matriarchs, it seems this was inevitable. Although this question was answered due to my research, many questions are left unanswered, and myself a bit confused. Mama Day sends George to the hen coop to get something, however we never find out what he was supposed to find there. Maybe it was her way of testing George’s love for Cocoa, or perhaps Naylor used it as some sort of symbolic meaning. We are left to use our imagination.
Another surprise to me was that Cocoa remarries. The novel portrays her undying love for George through out many scenes, so one would assume that she would live her life continuing to love George as a single woman. Naylor could have ended it in a way that Cocoa ends up being like Mama day; a single, loving mother of the island, but instead she puts on another twist. This could also have been another way Naylor tried to show the strength of black women to move on with their lives, although hard. We can come to many different conclusions as to why she chose to end it this way, but we cannot know for sure. I like the fact the she left so many things unanswered because it leaves us to be open minded and think a lot about how many things came into play when writing this novel.
Throughout the book, Gloria Naylor keeps us wondering what will happen and really does make the end very interesting. Of the things that happened, I don’t think I would have suspected George to die the way he did. I did not understand the “magic” that came with it. I did not understand why he died the way he did only that the lineage of how the men died foreshadowed how he would die.
I do think Gloria Naylor does give us many clues during the book and foreshadows some of the events. For example, when Ruby put the powder under the house we automatically knew something was going to happen. Not only that, but also it seems like all the women on the island have trouble with the relationships and something horrible ends up happening to the men. This ended up showing in the end with George dying from the heart. This was another clue that I began to wonder how things would end with George. Also, when Ruby grabbed some of Cocoa’s hair when she braided her hair we knew something would happen since it was known that Ruby did not use her powers for the better, only the worse. To see mama day use her magic to cast lightning on Ruby’s house was different also because she never used her magic to harm anyone.
I did like the way the book ended because it gave some answers to the audience. One of the strong points of the book was the relationship with George and Cocoa. Over the course of the book, it was interesting how there relationship unfolded and in the end when he goes to Willow Springs, it is sad to see that is where he dies. As for the end, I think it is important that she ends the book talking to him and letting him know that she has not forgotten about him and saying that he would like her husband and explains to him about her son George which is sweet. I did like when Cocoa is talking to him and explains what she has done with her life and feels like she owes him that since he gave his life for her. When she explains that it would have been hard to stay in New York, so she decided to go to Charleston. It is a true romance since the beginning of the book.
The way the book ended only made me appreciate the book more. Naylor’s use of imagery and foreshadowing only makes the book a better read. The way she makes each character different and somehow it all comes together makes the book good. Thought the preface of the book in a way tells us the ending of the book, it makes us want to read to find out why and how it happened. I think it adds to the suspense of the book. Though at times, it is hard to understand some of the hoodoo and magic in the book it is different than many books in fiction.
As to why Naylor ends the book the ways he did, I don’t know why. I think she ends it with everything being normal which in comparison to the rest of the book is different.
Gloria Naylor shrouded this novel in mystery, so many of the goings on leading to the end can not really be that surprising. The book is full of nothing but foreshadowing, and in just the introduction we find out a lot about how it will end. On the contrary Naylor certainly knows how to throw in some curve balls and shake things up every now and then. She never ceases to amaze me with how graphic and shocking she writes. You can get into the novel so much because of the detail that you don’t see what is coming. The ending had many surprising elements, along with some events that were almost expected, and also many things that were still left unexplained.
I was not surprised that George died at the end; I was just not sure how it was going to happen. This is because in the introduction Naylor writes this, “And if he was patient and stayed off a little ways, he’d realize [Cocoa] was there to meet up with her first husband so they could talk about that summer fourteen years ago when she left, but he stayed. And as her and George are there together for a good two hours or so – neither one saying a word…” This part of the introduction struck me once I got midway through the novel. I figured that she had to be at his grave, because there were no way both of these characters could sit that long in silence. They both are very vocal, opinionated, and stubborn so they would have had to speak to one another if he was alive. There is also a part in the book where George and Cocoa are talking about the Island that kind of made me wonder about whether he would actually die, or just stay there to live without her and just die later. “I [George] don’t want to go anywhere either. I could see myself staying here forever…No. You would not chain me [Cocoa] down here while you played at growing tomatoes and corn.” I thought at this point that maybe he would not die, but Cocoa would just leave him there and divorce him. The death of Bernice’s child Little Caesar did not really surprise me either because that is foreshadowed more than once. For example, “Most don’t take offense; [Bernice] waited a long time for that baby. But the older heads fear that trouble is coming.” The way she treated that child, and how she acted around Mama Day also made you think something bad was going to happen and that her obsession could not possibly last forever.
I think the ending is meant to show you that with every end comes a new beginning. You may move on, but you never forget how you got where you are or who got you there. This is shown here, “You’re never free from such a loss. It sits permanently in your middle, but it gets less weighty as time goes on and becomes endurable.” It is only natural for life to end, and the world just keeps going without you when you leave it behind. The people that are left without you have no choice but to pick up and keep going. I think this is what Gloria Naylor is trying to show through Cocoa’s character. She shows that nobody can help you cope with your problems except yourself, “And there’ll be another time – that I [Mama Day] won’t be here for – when she’ll [Cocoa] learn about the beginning of the Days. But she’s gotta go away to come back to that kind of knowledge.”
The ending changes my mind only slightly about Mama Day. In the beginning she is portrayed as this all knowing person who can heal anyone from any malady. She helps anyone in need no matter who they are, or what they have done to her. She seems magical, and she continues to seem this way to the end, but not as much. The end shows that she is a special woman, but that she is not super-human; “You have a gift, Little Mama. But who asked her for it? Who made her God?” There are some things that are just simply out of her hands no matter how much she wishes to help. In the end, though she loves Cocoa just as much if not more than George, she is helpless without him; “It’s gonna take a man to bring her [Cocoa] peace” – and all they had was that boy [George].”
Though the ending left some things unclear such as, what happened to Abigail & etc…, it was still satisfying in that it taught some really important lessons. It demonstrated how life is a circle and it just goes on and on and on. Things happen, and you just have to learn to live with them. Cocoa eventually learns what she needs to do and how she needs to do it. She learns to keep on going through whatever life throws her way.
After reading the ending, I revisited the introduction, looking for things that could have been significant if I had known their true meaning while reading the story. I noticed that about half way through the introduction when Reema’s son came back to the island to find out something about the people, in particular about 18 &23, the narrator asks “why didn’t he just ask?” (8). Then later in the introduction the narrator also says “someone who didn’t know how to ask wouldn’t know how to listen” (10). That sparked the thought that listening, truly listening, to different things played a big role in the novel. The story of the novel is told because of someone listening. “Pity, though, Reema’s boy couldn’t listen, like you, to Cocoa and George down by them oaks-- or he woulda left here with quite a story” (10).
In a way this novel is about listening. Mama Day listens closely to nature; listening is where she derives her power. She even realizes that “she had looked without seeming, listened without hearing” (227) when she misreads the signals that were forecasting the oncoming storm. She reprimands herself calling herself the fool and repeats to herself “listening without hearing” (227). It was also important to listen to the voices. The Day family hears voices in the graveyard and the other place, and they respect these voices and listen to them. It troubles Cocoa when she hears in the wind “you’ll break his heart” (224). She knows there is truth to be heard in the voices.
Mama Day is a novel that does not have a crystal clear resolution. The end of the novel is marked by one of the principle characters dying. We know that George dies due to his heart condition, one that was clearly outlined in the novel. He takes many precautions in his life, he cannot overexert himself, he takes medication, and he exercises regularly. One thing he overlooks deliberately in his precautions is his love for Cocoa. We know George is afraid or is uneasy around chickens. “He kinda hesitates when the chickens outside the coop start flocking around his feet” (194). Yet when Mama Day asks him to go to the chicken coop and tells him to “come straight back here with whatever your find” (295), after some hesitation, he goes to the chicken coop in compliance with Mama Day’s orders. He believes it is the only thing that can save Cocoa, even though he doesn’t quite believe it himself.
He begrudgingly goes there and finds himself in the midst of a frenzy of chickens. He listens to Miranda, and this ultimately leads to his premature and tragic death. He is frustrated because, according to him, he doesn’t find anything. However, I believe he does discover something, although not something material. George dying was a way to show his love for Cocoa. Sacrificing himself and listening to Mama Day proved that he loved Cocoa to the point where he would do anything, as crazy as he might have thought to save her life. Only George could save her, something Mama Day knew. Only through listening to Mama Day could Cocoa’s life be saved.
I have veery mixed feelings with how the book ended. I can't say that i was ever surprised by anything that happened in the book for various reasons. So I wasn't really surprised by the way the book ended. There always comes, however, a little shock with each twist and turn, whether expected or not. I was somewhat shocked that George died because there were other pople who could have died or had some foreshadowing of death. At one point earlier on in the book I had a feeling Mama Day would be the one to dramatically die. I thought this at the first time Mama Day gave any insight to her own age when Dr. Smithfield (I believe) wanted to drop her off all the way to her house when Mama Day refused. She then went to use a sick to help her walk along, and then later decideds not to. For ome reason i just had a feeling that Naylor was easing into Mama Day's death, but I was wrong. Also, I was surprised that George suddenly died when Cocoa was sick. I was somewhat caught off guard. Early on i had a feeling that George would have probems later in the book with his heart, but then Cocoa got sick and George was taking care of her. Then he died. I was surprised at this simply becuse I was not thinkin of him dying. Then again, I did when they both had dreams of him drowning. One thing that bothered me in the book was how George did not go to Willow Springs until their 4th year of marriage. This bothered me very much and even led me rethink my entore opinion of George who seemed at first that he'd do anything for Cocoa. Over all, I can't say that I was surrised how the book turned out very very much, save for a few slight surprises that were blatently forshadowed somewhere within in book.
I think Naylor ended the book with Cocoa getting remarried and then going back to Willow Springs and thinking about George because it shows the time in Cocoas life that mattered mos to her and that she cared for most in her life: George, Willow Springs, and Mama Day.
Personally, being a hopeless romantic, the end of the novel completely shocked me. I think everyone likes to believe that they will grow old with the one they truly love and obviously, this did not happen with Cocoa and George. I enjoyed the book very much until George died, to be honest. However, some of my favorite quotes out of the entire book happened after he died. Even when George said “But at this time I didn’t know that I was dying” on page 301, I refused to believe that he was actually dying. I blew the line off, thinking he was metaphorically dying, would save Cocoa, and they would live happily ever after. The fact that Naylor uses such graphic details such as when George’s “heart burst” and “my bleeding hand slid gently down your arm,” honestly made me want to curl up in a ball and cry. This graphic wording was all used to point across the point that he felt nothing and there was only peace. By stating that there was peace, Naylor was trying to convey that George was not only in peace, but now so was Cocoa.
During the events leading up to George’s death, he was still the most determined man; he ignored the unendurable pain in his chest and made it his last mission (not known to him at the time) to get to Cocoa. Every girl wants a boy to feel this way about them; every girl wants to believe a man would risk his life for her. I think this is why the novel shocked me, as well as others. As I read, I thought about how I would feel if I, in my early thirties, unexpectedly lost the love of my life. That feeling of losing something so valuable and not being able to get it back would probably be one of the most agonizing feelings. This is why I completely understand where Cocoa is coming from when she says “I wasn’t ready to believe that a further existence would be worth anything without you.” I believe they way in which Cocoa makes it known that she remarried is very important in conveying the fact that George was her one true love and any other man would only come second, no matter what. She does not even mention her husband’s name, but clearly states she named her youngest son after George. Also, they way in which she kept no pictures, therefore stated that George grew with her made it seem like, in a way, she ignored the fact that she remarried and was still married to George.
I believe that the reason Naylor ends the novel this way is because the love story was only a bystander to the real story. The main purpose of the novel was to express the family curse of the women who could not find peace. Each woman who could not find peace eventually died. Their husbands could not save them. Peace, Peace, and Hope were just part of the mysterious curse on the Days that made them restless and unhappy. Had George not sacrificed his, the curse would have continued with Cocoa. The ending of the novel was meant to break the curse and to finally bring peace to the Day women. This is why throughout the novel the forest whispers to Mama Day and Cocoa that “she would break his heart.” However, at the time I read this I thought George would triumph. Sadly, Cocoa literally broke his heart, and the curse was broken. Maybe the curse could have been broken had George listened to Mama Day and had done things her way; however, George’s character was a man who was blinded by the love he had for his wife. He could only save Cocoa his way; therefore he died to save her. Cocoa was meant to live so that she could carry on the Day lineage. I believe that the last page also suggests that she was meant to take Mama Day’s spot as a woman with special powers.
In the end, Cocoa receives peace. However, I believe that the only reason she was brought peace was because, as she said, that part of her life had died. The part of her life which included George being alive ceased to exist; therefore, in a sense, she was able to start a new life. I think, with the incredible shock of the ending, it is hard to acknowledge the true meaning of the novel because the love story, which is so tightly intertwined, is destroyed with the death of George.
The end of the story was very surprising for me. The fact that George died wasn’t something that I expected to happen. I knew that Cocoa and George didn’t stay together but I didn’t think that he would die. I think Naylor ends the novel this way because she wants the reader to think about all the events that happened and why they did happen that way. I was glad to see that Cocoa moved on but still remembers George. It was good that she wanted her son, whose name after George, to know about her first husband and why she named him that. Something else that shocked me is that Little Caesar died and what they did as a “funeral” for him. I think that the fact Bernice treated Mama Day after he was born and the way Bernice treated him had something to do with the fact that he died. Was that the way that everyone was treated when they died?
One thing that I didn’t understand about the story is what George was supposed to find when he went into the chicken coop. Did Mama Day know that he was going to die and sent him for that reason? I think it shows the love that George had towards Cocoa. Even though he didn’t want to go to the coop and do what Mama Day wanted him to, he went and tried because he wanted Cocoa to get better. The ending of the novel did affect the way that I viewed the rest of the story. At first I thought of Cocoa as someone who wouldn’t be able to love someone as much as she loved George. She showed that even he was gone that she would always remember him especially with Little George.
In my last reading response I talked about the Shakespearian references in the play, and I was excited to see the outcome of Mama Day. There is a great deal of latent foreshadowing hidden within the illusions to the Tempest and Hamlet. In the first part of Mama Day I was curious to see if Cocoa, her real name being Ophelia, would drown in the end of the novel as did Ophelia in Hamlet. But, as I learned about the first Ophelia, I thought that this may not be the case. And then as I ventured into the second part wit Cocoa’s lengthy illness and George’s desperation to cure her, I realized that George would have to sacrifice himself to save Cocoa. My only question was how, and after finishing this novel that question still lingers. How was Cocoa able to escape the wrath of Ruby’s roots through George’s death? Because of my reasoning before the climax, George’s death did not come as shock. I was surprised however at the circumstances surrounding his heart failure. What is the purpose of hens, and why are they used to kill George; what symbol do they provide? Also, why would George need to bring the ledger and the cane? Did Mama Day intend for George to die? She said the George had “done it his way”, so did Mama Day have an alternative route?
I feel as though George’s death allowed the island to come full-circle. When Miranda uncovers the well on page 284, there is a sense of eerie tranquility to the deaths of the women Miranda envisions; the suicides of her ancestors. They all declare “Let me go with Peace”, both referring to the desire to join the little girl Peace that so tragically drown in the well years before, and their wish to join the peace of death. As the novel concludes you get the feeling that George has joined this same peace. His death is not tragic, because it quells the unrest of the island.
Cocoa is filled with considerable grief after the death of her husband, but the novel glides over this as is spans many years fast-forwarding to a time when Cocoa has a new husband and new children. Also, in Mama Day’s last passage she treks back to the graveyard to visit her sister’s grave; giving a reflection on the novel in a whole. The last line leaves us with the peaceful conclusion that “on the east side of the island and on the west side, the waters were still”, once again leaving the reader with the idea that island has finally become calm. Also, I’m sure the reference to water is important, because of the three drownings. It is interesting that George does not die by water, considering the fact that he can’t swim, but then again, maybe he did. The novel does not give you a concrete explanation as to George’s death. Although the “how” is what annoys me the most, I believe that the how may not be important. What is most important is the “what” itself. For me I felt as though George was never going to be peaceful in his life with Cocoa, and it seems as though he was seeking relaxation. She is such a departure from his straight and orderly self, but somehow their love and arguments held them together. I think Mama Day intended this outcome. At the closing of the novel this peace is achieved through the lover’s separation, and it is a justified peace, because this is the central key to the ending of the novel; the harmony that is achieved from coming full-circle.
The ending to Gloria Naylor’s book, Mama Day, is in no way how I expected it to end. The death of Cocoa’s husband, George, was a complete and utter shock. The entire book is filled with foreshadowing that is at times hard to pick up on. I did, however, think that the dream of George swimming down the Sound trying to save Cocoa was foreshadowing to his death later on in the novel. I also found it ironic that both characters had this dream on the same night and never spoke of it to each other. Although George does die trying to save Cocoa, the Sound is in no way related to his death. I feel that Gloria Naylor could not decide which characters she wanted to survive and ultimately decided that very few characters should live to the end of the novel. Naylor even goes as far as to killing little Caesar, Bernice and Ambush’s son. Although the reader is surprised by the outcome of the novel, I feel that Naylor made the right choice. I feel that it was somewhat expected that Cocoa would die after she becomes ill and the reader is suddenly stunned by the death of George.
The way that Mama Day ends greatly affects the way I reflect on the rest of the novel. While reading, I came to the conclusion that Cocoa had settled for George. I felt that she had become tired of searching for her dream man and George was there to solve her problems. I feel she became tired of Mama Day and Abigail continuously asking her about her love life. I do feel that Cocoa did love George, I just do not feel that she returned the love that he had for her. At first, I felt that she finally found a man in New York City that would put up with her so she settled for George who was not meant for her. I also felt that she did not deserve George. I was confused by the fact that she continuously felt the need to pick a fight with him. Although I felt this way through the entire novel, the last pages completely changed my view of their entire relationship. I did not believe Cocoa when she told George, “I’d never get over you,” as the are fighting about getting remarried if the other died (page 143). Although Cocoa does, in fact, remarry after George’s death, it is apparent that she will never be over him. The last four pages of the novel completely changed my view of their whole relationship. I realized that although the fought entirely too much about situations that were irrelevant, that is what kept them together through the years. Cocoa did love George and the fact that although she continuously pushed his button, he never left. “A good second best, she [Mama Day] said. And she’s not wrong, any man would have come second to you (page 309).” I feel that Cocoa did not truly realize what she had until she lost it, and I feel that is what Naylor intended to for the reader to get from this novel.
I wasn’t surprised by the way things turned out. My intuition told me that George would die. In the beginning of the novel, when the narrator explained that Cocoa left Willow Springs but George didn’t, I couldn’t comprehend what that meant at the time. But as the story went on, and when Cocoa stated that she regretted their vacation to Willow Springs, I knew that George would die, but I didn’t expect it to happen in that fashion. I didn’t believe he would die in pain and exhaustion. And I actually grieved for Cocoa after George died. When she explained how her world came to an end, and that she wanted to commit suicide, my stomach felt a bit uneasy. At that moment, life wasn’t worth living to her. The description of how Cocoa felt after his death was very vivid to me. I could easily visualize the pain she went through, like when she cried after she saw the brochure from George’s shelter or when she felt he was coming back to their home in New York. Despite the tragic loss of George, I was glad to see Cocoa move on with her life in time, in a way as if George never left her.
I believe Naylor ended the novel, and the way I interpreted it, this way because the three main characters (Mama Day, Cocoa, George) found peace. Finding peace seemed to be the biggest obstacle for the Day’s lineage. There was a sense of resolve at the end. On the last day of Mama Day’s life, she got to see her niece, finally one woman from the Day’s family, at peace. When the both of them looked at each other from a distance, there was a sense of understanding between them; no words had needed to be spoken. At that moment, I felt Cocoa and Mama Day had the utmost respect for each other—for the hardships they had gone through. In addition, George stated, “As my bleeding hand slid gently down your arm, there was total peace.” Even though he knew he was dying, there was peace, because he understood that the end of his life would bring life back to Cocoa. And right before his death, George repeatedly stated that he would never let Cocoa go. So even if he did die, George knew he would always be with her, in mind not body. Cocoa’s peace was never letting George die. It brought her peace to visit the Sound, where his ashes were placed. She always put George first in her life after his death, because he had done the same for her, which enabled her to move on and start a new family and have kids like she always wanted to with George. Just the thought of him gave her peace.
I thought the ending was bittersweet, but it made novel as a whole all the better. If you have good analytical skills or logic, then you could’ve figured out what was going to happen just by reading the first few pages of the narrator. But Naylor took me on a great journey to get to that point. I liked how the novel progressed through time. Years would go by, and it’s up to you to interpret or imagine what could’ve happen in between. I also really liked how George and Cocoa grew together. Both were a bit stubborn with many differences, but both found a way to make it work. I believe when they took that vacation to Willow Springs, both of them started living for each other instead of living for themselves. George started to become a dreamer, looking at how beautiful Willow Springs was and imagining them to settling there. However, his logic and rationale came back after Cocoa took sick. George was willing to do anything to make his wife better, but due to his stubbornness, he always had to do things his way. And I think it didn’t matter if he did it his way or Mama Day’s way, I still believe his death was necessary for Cocoa to survive. Consequently, it seemed like the more and harder he tried to help Cocoa, the more ill she became. Unfortunately, his death had to bring her a new life. Now, she was able to live a life where she would watch the Super Bowl out of her love for George. She learned not to repeat the same mistakes she’d made in the past with her new husband. I was able to witness Cocoa’s maturation process throughout this novel. She went from a close-minded, sheltered, small-town young lady to a mature, wiser woman that would love George for eternity, just like he would have.
Reflections on the Conclusion of Mama Day
The last fourth of Mama Day, at first seems to be written without much respect to the other three thirds of the book. We see more chapters with George and Ophelia speaking, and the “island voice” seems to quiet itself to a whisper. George dies. Ophelia is sick. Mama Day feels almost powerless over the situation at hand, and yet, once one begins to think about the outcome, it does become a bit clearer. I think that Naylor concluded her novel the way she did to make certain points about life through different characters ending circumstances.
The first, and most obvious twist at the end of the novel, was the fate of our dear friend, George. We notice through the entire novel that he is a man who only believes in the power of himself, and apparently, that is the reason he fails at saving Ophelia’s life, by losing his own. I believe that the fate of George teaches the reader that one person can not do any great feats alone. All people are fallible, and thus need help, and George’s death, a death by selfishness, proves this true.
The next character who goes through quite a bit in our novel, is Ophelia. Through an innocent conversation at the party with Junior Lee, after a particularly heated argument with George, she is put under a spell by Ruby. Bedridden, sick, tired, and dying, she spends her days waiting to get better, with little recollection of any conversations she has with anyone. She and George don’t get to make up before he passes away, for she is too ill to do much of anything, but makes it through the situation. Even if she did live, her pains for George don’t seem to falter, even after years of marriage to another “second best” man and a lovely child. She will have to live with the fact that they never reconciled their extremely hurtful words, which could tell the reader that every day could be the last, and though she was the one thought to die, it was her partner that did pass away, and they never got to say they were sorry.
Ruby, on the other hand, the source of all this evil, proves that jealousy and hate, can kill, slowly but surely. Her jealousy over Junior Lee led her to bewitch Ophelia, and Frances, as well as another woman, and lastly is brought full circle, when her house is struck twice with lightning. Aggression breeds more aggression, and such feelings of envy can consume one’s life, harming others, and greatly harming yourself.
Mama Day, the medicine woman of the island and the most respected woman of the land, also goes through a change. When we first meet her, she is a spry old thing with much wit, and energy, even with her age. As the novel progresses she mentions putting the linseed oil over her legs much more and walking with that cane in almost all the later scenes. We see her health diminish, but her heart stay very strong. She works her magic to save Ophelia as much she can, from certain death, but her conversations with George are what truly help her. Mama day at first has optimism that another generation of Day women will be seen, but she soon loses hope, only to see Ophelia’s son later. Mama Day is rewarded with the unexpected.
Lastly, the island does not change. The secrets of Sapphira and Bascom wade remain untold. The bridge is rebuilt. Mama Day’s magical powers are not suddenly nullified, and the townsfolk continue their life the way that they always have on the island. Perhaps this is another reason that George could not continue on his life’s journey. Maybe knowing what he knew about the island, and the stories he could tell, was too much information to be leaked into the rest of the world. It was a community that was happy to stay just as it had been, changing as it needed, yet trying very successfully to remain an ethnic enclave. A concentration of their type of life, and if George were to escape it, that way of life could be threatened.
All in all, each main character of the story grows towards the end. People’s lives are made an example of what they stand for, and others are spared to learn from those that have passed on. The circle of life ended with George, Ruby, and Little Caesar’s deaths, but continues with Ophelia’s son arriving to her second husband. Life will teach you many things through change, and through others, we can always learn.
The ending of the book was a bit of a surprise to me. I guess I was looking for too far into finding the literal meanings behind all of the mysteries that developed through the novel. I was expecting to figure out exactly how Sapphira Wade and 1823 came into play. But, I guess that’s how Naylor meant for the story to unfold. I think that this helps to describe the kind of place that Willow Springs was: a place where only those who lived there fully understood who they are and what they are about, as we discussed earlier in the novel. I think that Naylor meant to keep the mystery going and the legend of the island alive, but not unmasking every detail. I was also very shocked that George died. At first, I didn’t know if he actually died of heartbreak or if he actually grew sick from exhaustion. As I read further though, I realized that the voices were right. Cocoa would break his heart, because “he couldn’t let her go” (308).
I found the ending to be sad, yet something to learn from. I actually teared up just thinking about all the loss that that family had experienced. But, I also found it comforting to know that no matter what, they overcame it. I found it interesting to watch how Cocoa matured. She first came off as young and stubborn and overly concerned with herself, but by the end she was able to move beyond the grief she was feeling for herself to truly feel sorrow for George. My favorite moment was when she described him to Little George. She described him as love, because that’s how she truly saw him. His physical characteristics were no longer essential to the man he was.
I also liked how George’s character developed. I liked how despite his logical and scientific rationale, he still tried to understand how Mama Day and the rest of the people on the island thought. He fought hard for Cocoa’s life, and I think that’s what saved her.
The ending truly made me love the novel. It became a story about love and determination. The love aspect, for me, kept the story somewhat realistic, beyond the mystery of it all. The mystery, though, is what kept me interested. I am pleased with the way Naylor allowed the story to develop and unfold. I always find it interesting to see how each character grows and deals with his or her experiences. For this novel in particular, I like how there was a hidden quest for peace. I enjoyed seeing how Mama Day found her “peace,” although in a way, somewhat literal, by uncovering the well where her mother had ended her sorrows. I think that was her way of letting go, because she mentions that she has nothing left to look for in the other place. I believe that George came to peace, because he no longer experienced the heartache of having to let go of Cocoa. He fought for her and saved her life. I also liked how the end is set at George’s grave. It was comforting to see Cocoa and George still sharing their lives with each other, even though they both have moved on. I lesson I took from this book is that we may not know all the answers, but we must take what we do know and figure out how to use it.
Post a Comment