Mama Gone By Jane Yolen Analysis

In the story, “Mama Gone”, by Jane Yolen, Mandy Jane-the daughter of a now vampire-helps Papa to hunt Mama down in order to protect the rest of the village from being attacked by her. Papa did not follow the vampire ritual after Mama died, leading her to a life of blood sucking. Mandy Jane and her father must find a way to protect all from Mama. A lesson that the author brings up in the story is that it is important to have inner strength in times of crisis. The inner strength that Mandy Jane has is shown in the very beginning of the story through details and description that the author gives. Mandy Jane must dig deep to find every bit of her inner strength after Mama died while giving birth to her baby sister. Yolen shows this when writing about Mandy Jane’s response to her mother’s death. “”Mama Gone,” Bubba wailed again. But I never cried.” Some might believe that Mandy Jane’s absence of crying shows that she does not care about her mother. However, this action really shows that she has to dig within her to find every last bit of inner strength she has in order to replace her mother’s being and take care of the family. Bubba, her younger brother, is in a time

“Black tears dropped from her black eyes, then. But I never cried.” This text proves that Mandy Jane needed to be strong when hunting down her mother, no matter how hard it was for her to do. This is important because Mandy Jane did not cry in order to show that she was prepared to hunt her mother. She too had to realize that this wasn’t her mother, but her mother’s body that was taken over by a vampire instinct so that she could concentrate on saving the lives of many. The repetition of the word “black” shows Mandy Jane’s need to time and time again sift within herself to find her backbone, even when things seem dark and