Mama Day

Gloria Naylor’s 1988 novel, Mama Day, explores the history and folklore of Willow Springs, a mysterious fictional town located on an island somewhere between South Carolina and Georgia. Readers quickly get the impression that there is more to Willow Springs than meets the eye, and the novel continues to expand on this liminality, or feeling of being in between, that characterizes the town. The point of view repeatedly shifts between three characters: Ophelia “Cocoa” Day, George Andrews, and an unnamed, third-person narrator. The third person narrator is omniscient, meaning the narrator knows the experiences and inner thoughts of all the characters, and the novel follows this point of view mostly to illustrate the thoughts of Miranda Day, or Mama Day, the novel’s titular character.

Mama Day opens with a prologue that provides some background information on Willow Springs and its surrounding mythos. Readers learn about the legend of Sapphira Wade, a slave sold to Bascombe Wade, who was supposedly infamous for “extreme mischief and suspicions of delving in witchcraft” (9). According to legend, Sapphira bore Bascombe Wade seven sons before killing him under mysterious circumstances, and she has earned a supernatural reputation among the locals: “She could walk through a lightning storm without being touched; grab a bolt of lightning in the palm of her hand” (10).