In The Women of Brewster Place, the bond derives its power from the women’s previous sense of isolation from their mistreatment by men and from their regenerative discovery through suffering of the saving grace of a shared experience. It tries to show obsessed women who suffer in male-dominated society and a strong bond which keeps them alive. These women are in a constant state of struggle in their lives to find their identities.
In Mama Day, the power comes from folk tradition from fore-mothering and from nature as it moves into the realm of matriarchal mythmaking. At its best the bond among women confers identity, purpose and strength for survival. The natural forces and ancestral powers connect these women together. But although it is …show more content…
But the bond is not that of mother and daughter, even though Mattie had helped raise Ciel Turner years earlier. It is woman to woman. Their similar suffering makes them equal. Lucielia had come to look on her own daughter Serena as “the only thing I have ever loved without pain” (TWBP 93). Just before Serena electrocutes herself, Ciel has detached herself emotionally from her unreliable man, Eugene, who has too many problems of his own. What Mattie and Ciel come to share in Mattie’s act of primal mothering is their isolation, their burden of responsibility as mothers and the loss of their children. The best example of sisterly friendship without the maternal connection is Etta Mae Johnson’s relationship with Mattie. A woman weary but “still dripping with the juices of a full-fleshed life” (TWBP 67) in Preacher Woods’ eyes, Etta returns to Mattie and Brewster Place is a place where she can live safely with her accompany:
She breathed deeply of the freedom she found in Mattie’s presence. Here she had no choice but to be herself. The carefully erected decoys she was constantly shuffling and changing to fit the situation were of no use here. Etta and Mattie went way back, a singular term that claimed co-knowledge of all the important events in their lives and almost all of the unimportant ones. And by rights of this possession, it tolerated no secrets. (TWBP …show more content…
Naylor suggests that the novel concerns maternity. The metaphorical concept of maternity involves female leadership and altruism as well as the responsibilities associated with biological motherhood in many societies. Miranda Day receives the name Mama not because she has many children of her own, in fact, she has none but because as midwife, she has created or birthed most of the inhabitants of Willow
In Mama Day, the power comes from folk tradition from fore-mothering and from nature as it moves into the realm of matriarchal mythmaking. At its best the bond among women confers identity, purpose and strength for survival. The natural forces and ancestral powers connect these women together. But although it is …show more content…
But the bond is not that of mother and daughter, even though Mattie had helped raise Ciel Turner years earlier. It is woman to woman. Their similar suffering makes them equal. Lucielia had come to look on her own daughter Serena as “the only thing I have ever loved without pain” (TWBP 93). Just before Serena electrocutes herself, Ciel has detached herself emotionally from her unreliable man, Eugene, who has too many problems of his own. What Mattie and Ciel come to share in Mattie’s act of primal mothering is their isolation, their burden of responsibility as mothers and the loss of their children. The best example of sisterly friendship without the maternal connection is Etta Mae Johnson’s relationship with Mattie. A woman weary but “still dripping with the juices of a full-fleshed life” (TWBP 67) in Preacher Woods’ eyes, Etta returns to Mattie and Brewster Place is a place where she can live safely with her accompany:
She breathed deeply of the freedom she found in Mattie’s presence. Here she had no choice but to be herself. The carefully erected decoys she was constantly shuffling and changing to fit the situation were of no use here. Etta and Mattie went way back, a singular term that claimed co-knowledge of all the important events in their lives and almost all of the unimportant ones. And by rights of this possession, it tolerated no secrets. (TWBP …show more content…
Naylor suggests that the novel concerns maternity. The metaphorical concept of maternity involves female leadership and altruism as well as the responsibilities associated with biological motherhood in many societies. Miranda Day receives the name Mama not because she has many children of her own, in fact, she has none but because as midwife, she has created or birthed most of the inhabitants of Willow