Reconciliation In Mama Day

In “Mama Day” by Gloria Naylor the novel focuses on loved one, loved ones lost, and one’s personal reconciliation with the past, present and future. The theme of reconciliation is widely illustrated throughout the novel as Naylor creates a story that spans two worlds. One is the southern island of Willow Springs, inhabited only by the descendants of slaves; the other is New York City, a multi-racial, strict society.

As Mama Day achieves a personal breakthrough of her own during the story as she experiences her own moment of reconciliation for all the sacrifices she has made throughout her life. The role as “Mama” was forced upon Miranda at an early age in life, and since then has caused her great personal loss. As she looks back remembering where it all began with her mother’s madness after the loss of Peace, one of her other children. Her memory flashes back to;

“Little Mama. The cooking, the cleaning, the mending, the gardening for the woman who sat in the porch rocker, twisting, twisting on pieces of thread. Peace was gone. But I was your child, too. The cry won’t die after all these years.. Being there to catch so many babies that dropped onto her hands. Gifted hands, folks said. You have a gift,

Miranda's grief over George's death expresses the great Shakespearean theme of reconciliation that’s associated with “The Tempest.” In both Shakespeare and Naylor’s works, tragic loss occurs in the most painful of situations and although that loss cannot be restored, it’s illustrated in these stories that one can reconcile for the loss that they experienced. In the novel, Mama Day knows that George must do things his way, she expresses emotion for his loss when she "goes inside the coop to look around at the bloody straw, the smashed eggs, and scattered bodies. Now, she has the time to cry"