48 pages • 1 hour read
Gloria NaylorMama Day
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1988A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaPart 1, Pages 24-58Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Summary: Part 1, Pages 24-58
Mama Day does not break the story into chapters. Instead, the book is split into two large parts. Part 1 begins in New York City and from the point of view of Ophelia Day, or “Cocoa,” as her family calls her. Speaking in the second person, Cocoa reflects on her encounter with George at a coffee shop. Readers learn that Cocoa is unemployed but is scheduled for a job interview at the Andrews & Stein Engineering Company. As she judges the competing candidates for the job, Cocoa seems confident about her chances: she has graduated at the top of her class in business school and is well-qualified for the position.
The point of view then switches to a character named George, as he reflects on his experience growing up in Staten Island’s Wallace P. Andrews Shelter for Boys. He recounts the harsh disciplinary methods of Mrs. Jackson, as well as the recurring motto she drilled into the boys: “Only the present has potential, sir” (40). It then becomes apparent that George is, in fact, the same Mr. Andrews who is now interviewing Cocoa in his office. During the interview, George seems very interested in Cocoa’s personal life and history despite Cocoa’s efforts to keep the interview focused on her qualifications. Cocoa explains that she cannot start work immediately; she has to return to Willow Springs to visit her grandmother, Abigail, and her great aunt, Miranda. This dissuades George from offering her the job; he thinks, “You either do or you don’t. And you, Ophelia, were the don’t” (58). However, he cannot shake the feeling that he has seen Cocoa before, and he remains fascinated by her Willow Springs history.
Part 1, Pages 24-58 Analysis
Naylor uses these pages to characterize two of the three major characters of the novel, Cocoa and George. She casts Cocoa as a young woman with a rich Southern history that she would prefer to cast off in favor of presenting herself as a big-city professional. Cocoa’s careful analysis of George, as well as her very thorough critique of the other applicants at Andrews & Stein, showcase her sharp attention to detail and sarcastic sense of humor. This characterization is important to understanding her interactions with other characters, especially George, as it provides some insight as to why Cocoa seems to be self-conscious about—and even secretive of—her background.
Naylor’s characterization of George in this section casts him as a somewhat neurotic, matter-of-fact figure. Driven by logic, models, and maps, George staunchly believes there is a rational explanation for everything, which makes him a strong foil to characters like Miranda, Dr. Buzzard, and Ruby, all of whom either possess or believe in supernatural abilities. George’s insistence on applying models and logic to everything, even when they do not fit, is also responsible for much of his tension with Cocoa. Readers learn through George’s reflection on his experience at the boys’ shelter that he is concerned only with the present, the “now,” a characteristic that eventually results in his downfall. George is pragmatic to a fault; in adopting Chip’s motto of “Keep it in the now, fellas” and Mrs. Jackson’s “Only the present has potential, sir,” George closes himself off to any sort of gray area for thinking about things he does not understand (40).
These early pages also allow Naylor to set up the two primary settings of the novel, Willow Springs and New York City, as counterparts: the bustling metropolis of New York, with any number of ways in and out of it, stands in stark contrast to Willow Springs, the small island with just one bridge connecting it to the rest of the world. Mama Day is a novel about worlds colliding and the tension that arises from that collision, so by juxtaposing two settings that could not be any more different, Naylor underscores this tension between traditions of the past and the progress of the future.
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By Gloria Naylor
