"You
have a choice, she said to me. I can tell you the truth, which you
won't believe, or I can invent a lie, which you would. Which would you
rather have? (266).
There are several passages in Mama Day
that discuss George's inability to believe in the island's magical
atmosphere. Find another such passage and unpack its meaning.
Upon meeting George, the reader is almost immediately acquainted with the New Yorker’s skepticism regarding superstition. In order to believe in forces capable of transforming one’s future, he argues, one must believe in the promise of a future, a luxury that he was not afforded during his childhood spent in a government sanctioned shelter. George’s rejection of the supernatural becomes glaringly obvious as he accompanies Cocoa on her annual trip to Willow Springs, an island wholly absorbed with myth, legend, and superstition. Throughout the cynic’s narrative, the reader is provided with George’s in-depth perspective on the island’s magical atmosphere, one that is marked by disdain and frustration.
ReplyDeleteA passage in which George’s aversion to the island’s mystical nature is especially evident can be found on page 274. Ruby, the characteristically jealous wife of Junior Lee, has placed a curse on Cocoa in retaliation for her unwitting receipt of Junior’s wandering affections. With Cocoa quickly slipping further into the throes of the phenomenal affliction, Mama Day reciprocates Ruby’s gesture, channeling her knowledge of folklore to exact revenge while simultaneously attempting to cure her grandniece of the fantastical malady that plagues her. Though the precise implications of Mama Day’s retribution are not explicitly specified, the reader can assume that the improbable occurrence of lightening striking Ruby’s home twice was not an entirely natural incident. Indeed, the very fact that the event took place soon after the revelation that Ruby is the agent responsible for Cocoa’s condition should indicate to the reader that the incident was not an act of God, but rather an act of human facilitated by nature.
Instead of accepting the episode as a form of revenge cleverly crafted by his wife’s great-aunt, however, George rejects the impossibility of the occurrence and begins to analyze the scientific conditions favorable in justifying the improbable circumstances. By refusing to recognize that the implausible event was anything more than an unlikely coincidence, George also rejects the magic that would be necessary to carry out such an outlandish kind of retaliation. However, George does not stop at the mere denial of mystical power; he goes on to insult those who do not concur with his analytical explanation. By sneering at the supposed inferior intellects of those who prefer the supernatural rendition of the episode, George appears to be grasping at straws, pursuing any means (even debasing the wisdom of citizens who have been nothing if not kind to him) to convince himself that the forces at work are natural, that the belief that he has held since childhood rejecting those supernatural forces is still indubitable
“That’s where folks start, boy – not where they finish up. Yes, I said boy. ‘Cause a man would have grown enough to know that really believing in himself means that he ain’t gotta be afraid to admit there’s some things he just can’t do alone. Ain’t nobody asking you to believe in what Ruby done to Cocoa – but can you, at least, believe that you ain’t the only one who’d give their life to help her? Can you believe that, George?” (292).
ReplyDeleteI thought that this passage regarding George’s belief in the magical aspects of the island was particularly interesting. Here, Dr. Buzzard tells him that George’s “belief in himself” was not going to get him anywhere in his attempts to help Cocoa. Buzzard is trying to get George to change his outlook on the situation and life in general. George is very individualistic; he believes that all he needs to get something done are his brain and his own two hands. This is one of his main character traits, which stems from his upbringing at Wallace P. Andrews, where they told him that “only the present has potential.” They drilled him to believe that he was the only person that could change his present condition, which would become his future. In his mind, he was going to help Cocoa get better without help from anyone else on the island, and had he been fighting worldly forces, he may have succeeded. However, he was dealing with forces that he had never reckoned with: the forces of the island itself, and he could not fight those alone. When Dr. Buzzard says that a man would “admit that some things he just can’t do alone,” he is trying to convince George that getting help from someone else does not mean that George failed. There is an irony in Buzzard’s words when he tells George that he is not “the only one who’d give their life to help [Cocoa],” because in the end, George is the only one who loses his life to save her. What makes George’s death so tragic is that if he had just believed in what everyone on the island was trying to tell him, he would have been spared. Instead, he tried to do things his way. When he finally went to the other place to find Mama Day, he didn’t trust the things he was to hear. Even Mama Day said that “he came but he don’t believe.” George relented and listened to Mama Day’s instructions, but he never believed them. In his heart, he did not trust what she had to say. In light of this, one could say that George’s individualism was his Achilles heel. His individualism was the only thing keeping him from trusting Mama Day, and his lack of trust caused him to die. Therefore, his individualism ultimately killed him.
“What do you do when someone starts telling you something that you just cannot believe? You can walk away. You can stand there and challenge him. Or in my case, you can fight the urge to laugh if it wasn’t so pathetic . . . It seemed as if he was finally finished, and I thanked him for telling me all of that, anxious to get away from him and start. He put his hand on my forearm. ‘I told Mama Day this wouldn’t do no good. I’m really sorry, George.’ ‘Not half as sorry as I am.’ ‘Naw, I’m doubly sorry. ‘Cause I know how serious this thing is that you can’t believe’” (286).
ReplyDeleteThis passage highlights a major decision point in the novel, one where George can either start trying to believe in the magical atmosphere of the island to save Cocoa’s life, or one where he continues to be shallow minded about what the island people keep attempting to tell him. Growing up, the shelter he lived in limited George’s imagination, and that trait continued on in him. It is not as simple as it may seem for George to simply stop believing everything he has always known and listen to a bunch of seemingly crazy people he just met. It takes time for George to build trust, and his wife’s life was not something he wanted to take chances with.
Dr. Buzzard attempts here to explain to George everything that has happened and why Cocoa is sick. He tells the truth, yet George cannot simply believe that his wife had been harmed by magic. Instead of gaining valuable time by at least giving Buzzard’s word a chance, he almost runs out of time to save Cocoa. Buzzard apologizes because he knows how bad the situation will get since George will not listen, but George apologizes back, not knowing how sincerely Buzzard’s apology is meant to be. George takes him to be crazy and won’t realize how wrong he was by not listening in the first place until it’s too late.
George cannot help but stop listening to Buzzard’s warning because he has other, in his mind more important, things to worry about, such as the boat he had found being lit into flames. He tried to figure out a way off the island on his own, but the island residents knew how dangerous taking a boat across the sound would be and eliminated the option of it. Instead of then finally taking heed to what Buzzard is warning him of, he continues to worry about a way to get off. George comes to the conclusion that he will help with the bridge, one of the only times he compromises with the island people’s ways.
George wastes valuable time, though, by not going right away to see Mama Day. It took many more warnings before he would go to the other place, and even once there he did not believe. It took him actually seeing what had taken over his wife’s body before he realized how serious the matter was. Once this realization occurred, he was willing to do anything, no matter the strangeness of it, to attempt to save Cocoa. His eventual secession to the island’s ways allowed him to save his wife’s life, yet not his own.
“’George ain’t never gonna belivie this, Miranda. Go to him with some mess like this, and he’d be sure we were senile.’
ReplyDelete‘That’s right. So we gotta wait for him to feel the need to come to us. I’ll have to stay out at the other place. And when he’s ready, head him in my direction.’
‘That boy’ll never make it, Miranda.’” (267)
Throughout the entire book, every speaker (from the island that is) talks of how remote the island, how it belongs to no one except those who have inhabited it for the past generations. They believe in the land, the culture, and the people involved with the process of keeping the land theirs. Everyone else, from the land spectators to George, is simply an outsider who could never understand how the island works. The sisters are questionable, with good reason, on his ability to believe in something so abstract.
In regards to George’s inability to believes in the island’s magical atmosphere, I believe one must pay close attention to George’s upbringing or lack thereof. Being raised in a boy’s home, having no mother to read him stories, no one to encourage to think outside the box or that anything is possible, had a tremendous effect on his ability to believe in magic (or even miracles), especially at such a late stage in his life. Another thing to be noted is his way of thinking. He is an engineer. He believes in substance, in math, in things that can be solved and then proven if questioned. Magic is abstract, something that can’t be held in one’s hand, or checked by using a mathematical equation. He has trained his mind to believe in other ways, not by creativity but by concrete means.
However, in this passage, Cocoa has become ill to the point where Mama Day knows that something has infected her soul and spirit. She needs a different type of saving then medicine can provide. George believes the opposite. At this point he is frantic to get off the island, even willing to row an unstable boat across the sound when he has no idea how to swim. Above this passage the women question how they would even begin to tell George about the magic taking place on the island and conclude, “We ain’t even got his kind of words to tell him what’s going on.” They are at a loss and can only hope that he will come to the solution for what needs to be done by his spirit.
Coincidentally, as I was reading I selected the same passage as Taylor as a significant quote that emphasized George's inability to believe the island's magical atmosphere and happenings: “What do you do when someone starts telling you something that you just cannot believe? You can walk away. You can stand there and challenge him. Or in my case, you can fight the urge to laugh if it wasn’t so pathetic . . . It seemed as if he was finally finished, and I thanked him for telling me all of that, anxious to get away from him and start. He put his hand on my forearm. ‘I told Mama Day this wouldn’t do no good. I’m really sorry, George.’ ‘Not half as sorry as I am.’ ‘Naw, I’m doubly sorry. ‘Cause I know how serious this thing is that you can’t believe’” (286).
ReplyDeleteAt this point in the novel, Dr. Buzzard is urgently and sincerely attempting to convey to George the severity of the Cocoa's ailment and how it occurred by the force of magic. Being raised in a boy's shelter, George was brought up in a caustic environment of dour realism with little room for hope and especially the idea of imagination and creativity. Because of this maxim of George, he is hardly able to accept a change in his schedule, and much less that magic exists and is the source of the harm of his wife. This point is an imperative and detrimental one in the story in if George decides to accept what Dr. Buzzard is saying and put his faith in the magical atmosphere of the island in order to save Cocoa's life, or maintain a pragmatic and closed mind that will cost him invaluable time. Unfortunately, the latter occurs, resulting in an immense amount of lost time in George's attempt to save Cocoa because he refuses to believe and go directly to Mama Day, apparent in this quote which displays his thought that the Dr. is "pathetic" and has to fight the urge of laughing in the his face.
This disadvantageous decision on George's part will eventually be realized by him only later when it is too late for himself. Because George is preoccupied with the dire need his wife, he refuses to not only listen to Dr. Buzzard but the advice of the other islanders in not getting off of the island and their cautionary warnings. George's bereft belief in the magic of the island, stemming from his astringent past, though seemingly minor eventually results in his demise, and nearly Cocoa's.
page 267
ReplyDelete“'George ain’t never gonna believe this, Miranda. Go to him with some mess like this, and he’d be sure we were senile.'
That’s right. So we gotta wait for him to feel the need to come to us. I’ll have to stay out at the other place. And when he’s ready, head him in my direction.
'That boy’ll never make it, Miranda.'”
Because George was not born and raised on the island, it can be assumed he would not understand or grasp the culture. Through out the book the islanders state any outsider to their world would not grasp the belief or the ways of the people. As you can see the sisters Abigail and Miranda speak in a rather bleak tone because they too understand George is not a native of the island therefore his chances of trusting their medicinal ways are slim.
Unfortunately for Mama Day, if cocoa's healing is to be thorough and succinct George must come to terms with the so drastically different island culture. It is this understanding he does not acquire. George believes Cocoa is in need of advanced medical attention and the only way to achieve this is to get Cocoa across the bridge to a doctor. Mama day realizes Cocoa's illness is not only affecting her physically but spiritually, therefore her method of healing is dissimilar.
The differences between Cocoa and George and the differences between George and Mama Day are sparked by the same match, the way each one was raised. George was raised in a realistic, practical world where a 'spiritual' healing for a physical problem is simply inadequate. Mama Day was raised in a world separate from any other civilization in which the culture and history was the life of the island. Because of this many solutions whether they be spiritual or physical could solve one problem.
Unfortunately for George his realization of a possible cure for Cocoa that is not his own falls upon him to late. He did not heed the advice of the islanders, Abigail, Miranda, and Dr. Buzzard, to believe in Mama Days ways. His ignorance results in his untimely fate and almost kills Cocoa as well.
“'George ain’t never gonna believe this, Miranda. Go to him with some mess like this, and he’d be sure we were senile.'
ReplyDelete'That’s right. So we gotta wait for him to feel the need to come to us. I’ll have to stay out at the other place. And when he’s ready, head him in my direction.'" p. 267
To start, George was brought up in New York. Prejudices between northerners and southerners exist solely on the basis of where individuals are born and raised. Based on the differences between these two groups, it can be reasonably assumed that upon arrival to the island George was already cautious about believing any practices these strange people (to him) might undergo. That being said, when George starts uncovering the fact that Cocoa's family believes in magic and the presence of supernatual beings, he of course would have trouble even thinking this could be true. In his mind, these views are ludicrous. He did not even think of going to Mama Day as Cocoa fell ill until he could not reach the mainland due to the collapsed bridge from the hurricane. Only then did he go to her and see what he could do to help Cocoa, and go to the chicken coop that eventually led to his death. The magical atmosphere of the island's magnitude can only be fully understood by someone who is bred in its ways, and George was not raised to believe in any of the magical island beliefs. An interesting point about George's difficulty to believe in the island's atmosphere is that once he falls in love with Cocoa and gets tied in with the culture of the island, he inherits the harmful fate of the magical family. He dies of heart failure trying to help his love after advice is given to him by Mama Day that he misunderstood.
"I may have knocked my head against the walls, figuring out how to buy food, supplies, and books, but I never knocked on wood. No rabbit's foot, no crucifixes—not even a lottery ticket."
ReplyDeleteTo unpack this passage one must first understand George's upbringing. George was raised in an orphanage, a place in which magic, dreams, and imagination do not run wild. George's caretaker frequently stated "only the present has potential and only facts matter". This is a lucid explanation to why George does not believe in the magic of the island; his upbringing preaches against it and taught him to rely upon himself. This self reliance explains why George is such a successful businessman. This presents another reason why George does not believe in the magic of the island, his profession. Being an engineer, George often works with math, blueprints, and science-all things that can be proven. Yet George cannot wrap his mind around this magic because he cannot logically believe this would work.
The quotation above shows that George has never relied upon magic before, he has always made his own path and now to completely change his mindset and believe that magic is the only answer ultimately is too much for George. The Day’s are notoriously known for breaking men’s hearts, and ironically George’s heart bursts trying to save Cocoa.
“What a crazy old woman.” (266)
ReplyDeleteThis sentence, literally the next sentence after the quoted paragraph in the blog prompt, perfectly describes George’s as well as my response to the islands magical atmosphere. George, however, has an even harder time understanding of the island because he has never been apart of a family, especially one so close, so secluded, that it seems unreal. Ironically though, he begins to fall in love with the island to the point of even discussing to move there. Perhaps, a reason for this change in mentality is that he starts to believe in the unreal. An example of this is him going to the “other place” to find a cure his wife.
Superstition is pervasive in the island with Mama Day, the chieftain, supposedly inheriting the “gift” form Sapphira Wade. On the surface, a skeptical reader wonders how so many people could believe in such seemingly mythical events (we find out later that Mama Day relies on outside world sometimes). The reason for this is a secluded atmosphere, ideal conditions for brainwashing (especially a community being secluded for generations), and blind belief. In reality, the hoodoo is just a mask, and a source for manipulation as we see Dr. Buzzard and Ruby do. Mama Day, however, uses it for good deeds, and the illusion she has created at the island is a fantastic haven, which George slowly falls in love with. Even though, he knows this is all fake, evidenced by referring to Mama Day as a “crazy old woman,” he begins to want to believe in it, and eventually through time one will.
P. 174: “It’s hard to know what to expect from a place when you can’t find it on the map. Preparing for Willow Springs upset my normal agenda: a few minutes with an atlas always helped me to decide what clothes to pack, whether a raincoat would be in order or not, a light pullover for the evenings. Your insisting that the place was exactly on the border between South Carolina and Georgia wasn’t terribly reassuring…But where was Willow Springs? Nowhere. At least not on any map I had found…What county claimed it? Where was the nearest interstate highway, the nearest byroad?”
ReplyDeleteThis is the first passage in which George addresses the “mystical powers” associated with Willow Springs, specifically its unidentifiable whereabouts. George, being an utter pragmatist, can’t accept Cocoa’s explanation that the island isn’t claimed by a state or county, that it just is. He has lived his entire life by calculating his actions based on the facts given to him; however, in this one instance there are no facts to give and the reader is able to watch as George slowly unravels his uptight sense of being and becomes the man he was meant to be.
This change of character begins on page 174 on the journey to Willow Springs. George, upon arriving, realizes that despite its oddities, Willow Springs truly is a “paradise.” His assumptions of the island continue to be contradicted as he sees Miranda and Abigail for the first time; they are surprisingly youthful and beautiful, the complete opposite of the aging ninety year olds George was expecting to meet. These revelations are just the first of many the couple, George and Ophelia, will encounter, all of which will take a profound toll on their relationship as well as their life goals.
As George begins to accept the mysteries of the island like in the passage above or in the prompt, he is, in turn, accepting a part of himself he didn’t know existed: the whimsical boy able to be happy without analyzing every aspect of his life. When George is willing to see the island not as a dot on a map, but an entity with its own secrets and powers, he finally finds peace after a lifetime of struggling between how he was taught to live, and how he wants to live. His character development was by far the most exaggerated of all the characters in Mama Day as the reader sees George evolve from a pragmatist, city man, to a humble, rural, and, arguably happier, human being.
“George ai’nt never gonna believe this, Miranda. Go to him with some mess like this and he’d be sure we’re senile.
ReplyDelete“That’s right so he gotta feel the need to come to us” -p.267
Once again we see the idea that George relies upon himself to get things done. His upbringing simply doesn’t make much way for magical powers. Every one else on the island has allowed the infectious idea of magic set into their minds. George, being raised in a boy’s home does not cling to the beliefs of the other islanders.
The orphanage that George was raised in is a place with no parents, no family, no heritage. It is interesting how on the island heritage is everything. Just as the quote in the prompt illustrates the peoples’ heritage is built upon legend. It is quite obvious that the legend has turned in to life for the people on the island. Fiction has etched itself into the DNA of the people.
Growing up in an orphanage George was forced to discover the world on his own. He was forced to face a world were magic only exist in movies and book, a world where if you can’t see it, it isn’t real; the real world. Throughout the novel the different upbringings of the characters are what really define them. When it comes to George not believing in the magic, it is his childhood that made him that way.
"I may have knocked my head against the walls, figuring out how to buy food, supplies, and books, but I never knocked on wood. No rabbit's foot, no crucifixes—not even a lottery ticket." Pg. 27
ReplyDeleteThis passage shows that George never believed in luck or superstitions, but that he could get where he wanted in life by working hard and relying on himself. It is very understandable for George not to be able to believe what is going on on the island. He is an engineer and works with numbers and formulas that makes sense and can be explained, but now he is in a completely different environment that he has to adjust to and there are things that can not be explained by math or science. There are a lot of people that have trouble adjusting to a move from say New York to Tuscaloosa. There are many aspects to every day life that are turned upside down for a person. Now imagine making that same adjustment while throwing in the magically atmosphere of the island and anyone would have trouble believing.