The Green Island

The imaginary place located within the green patch of Mama's eye where Karen goes to feel safe, which she names Green Island, represents Karen's need to withdraw from reality in order to feel secure. It also represents the close relationship between Karen and Mama. In Chapter 1, Karen describes Green Island as, "covered with shrubs and tress and it smells like earth. It’s like my mother made a place on Green Island for everything I am (even the secret things) and I lay down in a soft bed of moss and fall asleep underneath the really tall pine tree” (17). After Mama dies, Karen retreats to Green Island and is visited by her deceased brother Victor, whom Karen just found out existed. This shows the Green Island can no longer be a place to escape reality. Now that her mother has died, Karen can no...