Through the ages

Nicole C.

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Through the ages

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Abstract

The passage of time influences everyone in one way or another. In her novel, Mama Day, Gloria Naylor illustrates the strength and importance of the connection between ancestry and the present. The title character Mama Day (Miranda) finds personal strength and wisdom through her great matriarchal ancestor Sapphira, much like my relationship with my paternal grandfather, whom I have never met.

Introduction
The connections that are made
The tie between family and ancestry
Naylor
The connection between an ancestor and a descendant
Sapphira's memory
The impact
Sapphira's legend
Conclusion

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Extract

[...] Naylor used intense imagery in this passage to describe the how great the impact of Sapphira's presence was. The use of simile in comparing Sapphira's presence to a flowing liquid shows that she filled all of the empty space that inhabited Miranda's life; the words and show that this change in her life is a wonderful welcome one. Sapphira has become the mothering figure that has been missing in Miranda's life. Once this void was filled, Miranda was able to come to terms with the awful death of her sister. [...]

[...] I knew from that day on, I wanted to be a lawyer to honor my grandfather's profession and also to bring justice to people who commit crimes, unlike the man who killed my grandfather. Each person I would prosecute and put in prison would be to make up for my grandfather's brutal murder. His life and his death continue to give me the strength to work to become a successful lawyer in the future. This is comparable to the influence that Sapphira's memory had on Miranda's capability to come to terms with her sister's death. [...]

[...] There is no way for her descendants to find out whether any of this happened, so the details get hazy and everyone in Willow Springs has a general idea of who she is. The impact that she has made is a lasting one that is great enough so that the use of her name is unnecessary. The use of the term & is a part of the regular vocabulary of the inhabitants at Willow Springs. It was in the year 1823 that Wade freed his slaves and gave them land (and that somehow Sapphira was the reason for this), and it was the 18 & 23'ing that went down between them” that assisted in this The term & has replaced a verb and an adjective in their vocabulary. [...]

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