Some of the parallels that I have found in Mama Day when it is compared to the Tempest is that both stories for the most part take place on an island. In addition to the island both stories deal with with some sort of magic. I would also like to say that I feel that Mama Day is the "Prospero" in the novel and that Coco and George are the "Miranda and Ferdinand". That being said about how I feel the characters are related that does not mean that I feel that the characters are as related as the characters in A Thousand Acres.
With all that being said I feel that the relationship between Mama Day and The Tempest is there, but it is not as prevalent as the relationship between A Thousand Acres and King Lear.
I definitely agree with you. It seems that the correlations between Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Naylor’s Mama Day are very slight, bordering even on nonexistent. Compared to the other works we have read, the influence Shakespeare maintains on this contemporary novel does not appear as prevalent. Naylor did exemplify how she does not consider her work to be as much of an adaptation as she explains that there are influences from Shakespeare. Despite this, I cannot see how any correlation besides the island and the magic might exist.
ReplyDeleteI don’t believe that any character could truly relate from The Tempest to Mama Day. While Mama Day employs magic, she does not have the same enslavement Ariel does. With Cocoa and George, it is clear they resemble the lovers of Ferdinand and Miranda; however, whose overall plot do they fall into. The numbers of character parallels do not outnumber the doubts I retain about the supposed correlation between these novels.
Again, I will say that I agree with you, that these works are not closely related at all, and while parallels can be made, their number is too few to truly propose severe influence on Naylor from Shakespeare.
I very much agree that the resemblance between The Tempest and Mama day is extremely slight to say the least. I think its quite astute of you to point out the Miranda Ferdinand parallels. However that being said i also agree that The Tempest is an outline for Mama Day in terms of the island and magic but besides that the similarities are quite negligible.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with everything said. I would like to suggest that although Gloria Naylor refutes her novel as being a parallel story to The Tempest, the case could be that after reading the Tempest it could have affected her - being a African American woman - and that could have been the spring board for her to write her novel, Mama Day. I think as a whole, the play and the novel and very different. Yes, some parallels between character can be speculated. But the overall themes are hard to compare and relate. The Tempest is about a Man using magic to achieve his goals and putting people who have wronged him in their rightful place. In Mama Day, the themes are more centered on individuals finding their identity. Also, I think the magic in Mama Day is more natural and less abused than in The Tempest. So I do think that both works are going in entirely different directions. But with that said I do think it is possible The Tempest could have been the spring board for Naylor's Mama Day.
DeleteI also have to agree with what you said. Sure there are the parallels which you have touched upon, and you could probably argue some other parallels. For example just saying that both novels have the aspects of love and that George is actually the Caliban character (we briefly brought this up in class I do not personally feel this way). But like you said earlier, though there are parallels it seems like there aren't close enough, and there is not enough parallels to assume it is a novel influenced from the play. There are several plays with similarities, some probably as close as The Tempest and Mama Day, so making that assumption seems like a long shot.
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