Mama Day's Relation to The Tempest

In the novel Mama Day, their are a few things about it that link it to Shakespeare's, The Tempest, such as magic, the storm, and the island.  Besides these loose parallels I don't think the two works had much to show us, that would make a reader think that Mama Day was a revision of The Tempest, like A Thousand Acres was with King Lear.  I found myself reading  Mama Day and looking for things that would link it to The Tempest, but this seemed to only make my reading of the novel more difficult, and once I began reading it with its own voice and characters it became easier to follow.  If this is a revision of The Tempest then it is very loosely based, in my opinion, and the reason for that is that all the significant things that Shakespeare put into his work aren't all their in the work by Gloria Naylor. I believe that Naylor may have crafted her novel with the intent to take the main ideas of a magical island that has quite a few issues, but not to remake Shakespeare's play, thus Mama Day was created with a magical island setting. The rest can only be found by reading the novel itself,  because you wont understand this novel just by having read The Tempest.

Prospero's Plans

I think that Prospero's goals in the beginning were very step by step because after he stranded everyone on the island he did each and everything in sequence.  He first used Ariel to shipwreck the boat and strand everyone unharmed.  Then he made his daughter fall in love with the future king. This makes it very clear to me that his intentions were to first better himself by taking revenge on his brother, Antonio, who stranded Prospero and his daughter on the island, and second to better his daughter by magically making her and the future king to fall in love.  I thought Prospero executed his plans very well because both of the things he wanted to happen fell into his plan and ended up happening throughout the play.

Character Development

     Thus far in A Thousand Acres we have learned many different things about all of the characters but i think Caroline is one of the most interestingly different characters when compared to King Lear.  What still stands out to me about this character though is when she got in an argument with Ginny at church.  It was an earlier passage but it was the first time we got to see who Caroline really is.  In this passage we see that Caroline is tired of having to act like a little girl to her father and this time she will not sit there and try to appease him just because it's what he wants.
     Caroline is tired of doing what everyone wants her to do, so in this chapter she stands up to Ginny and tells her that "It's time to stop making allowances."  By this she means that she doesn't want to receive the farm from her dad and that it should be her decision what she wants, and no one else can make it for her.  Caroline is a strong person who wants to make decisions based off what her interests are, and not what her father tells her to do.
     I think this passage really sets the tone for how Caroline is going to be throughout the rest of the book and she even shows this is true by, when her father slams the door in her face on the porch she doesn't wait around for someone to come find her.  Instead when everyone does come out of the house she is gone.

Parallels Between Lear and Gloucester

     Lear and Gloucester have many things in their lives in common.  Each has children and some sort of standing rank in the kingdom that at least one of their kids wants from them.  In the beginning of the play Lear decides that his only "loving" daughter, Cordelia, should be banished to France because she didn't play into Lear's game of tell me how much you love me.  This action leaves Lear's other two daughters, Goneril and Regan, with all the control of the kingdom and even the power to drive Lear insane.  Similarly, Gloucester has two sons and Edgar, one of those sons, loves and respects him very much but the other, Edmond, looks to drive Edgar out of the kingdom then take his fathers position in the kingdom from himself.  These things make Lear and Gloucester very similar because their loving children get driven away from the kingdom in one way or another which causes trouble for the "old men" because then all they have left are their disrespectful children, which are looking to get rid of their fathers.  Because of these similarities in the story it really helps to show all the problems that are created by the children that don't care what is best for their fathers, but only what will get them more power and authority.  These actions ultimately cause everyone, expect Edgar and Albany, to die in one way or another.

Lear's Fool

      Lear's fool plays a major role in this play by jokingly pointing out a lot of Lear's faults directly to his face even though Lear just shrugs them off because he thinks that what the fool is saying dosen't matter.  As the play continues Lear and his fool are shut outside in the storm and the fool stays loyal to Lear and talks to him while they are out in the rain and even tries to convince Lear to go inside.  After Lear gets inside, the fool sticks around until Lear leaves to meet Cordelia at Dover.  When Lear leaves for Dover the fool is gone from the play, and with no real reason why.  Im not really sure why the fool disappeared from the plot of the play but if i had to venture to guess it was because King Lear was in good hands with his only loving daughter and the fool could sneak off and find a place to not be a part of all the conflict.  the reason i believe this is where the fool went is because it is exactly what i would do.  Wait till the person im with is in safe hands, then get out of the fight that i am not supposed to be a part of.