City Boy versus Country Girl :: Mama Day Gloria Naylor Essays

City Boy versus Country Girl Gloria Naylor’s novel, Mama Day, shows how two loving people can unite in marriage, while being from two separate worlds. The way that Naylor creates the anxiety between these two characters is by the differences in their backgrounds--including their families, traditions and their geographical origins. Cocoa and George are extremely different; however, this is what makes their marriage so strong. Raised by the two most respected women in the town, Cocoa grew up on a small southern island with a loving family, while George grew up in a boys’ home without a family in urban New York. These differences in background bring George and Cocoa together, while helping to instill traditions and values in George. In the end, George has changed his point of view of the island and the way Cocoa acts in her home so dramatically that he sacrifices his life for her. Mama Day illustrates differences that are all around us through one couple’s marriage and the two places they call home. Willow Springs, the island on which Cocoa spent her childhood, lies between Georgia and South Carolina. Set apart from the rest of the world because it belongs to neither state, Willow Springs has many traditions unlike the world around it. Candle Walk, for instance, the tradition that created Willow Springs, goes back to the legend of Sapphira Wade, Cocoa’s great-great-great-grandmother. Saphira Wade had walked to the ocean in hopes of returning to her mainland with only the light of a candle showing the way. Thus, each year since that time, the island celebrates the memory of Saphira Wade during Candle Walk, takes place at night and encourages every neighbor to give homemade gifts to others in the community. Coming from the city, George has personality issues because of his non-existent family background. As a young child, his prostitute mother abandoned him to be raised by the state in the Wallace P. Andrews Shelter for Boys. George explains to Cocoa how the shelter treated him as though there were nothing out of the ordinary about a home without love in it. â€Å"They may not have been loving people, [Mrs. Jackson] and Chip–or when you think about it, even lovable. But they were devoted to their job if not to us individually† (Naylor 23).