b. Helping Her Mother
Discrimination that Beauty receives from her father makes Beauty have strong bonding with her mother. Both of them bond in sisterhood that ties them together to
fight and to survive from discrimination. Beauty helps her mother to survive from her father’s oppression. He oppresses Beauty’s mother by saying she has no skill
including skill in cooking. Moreover, he says that he chooses her not for her culinary skills, but for her look Wilson, 2016: 95. When her mother tries to make cookies to
change Beauty’s nickname at school, Beauty helps her to make it tastes delicious.
‘Maybe we need a proper recipe book?’ I said, scraping the cookie crumbs into the wastebin. ‘I think we need to get all the ingredients right.
Maybe this is the wrong sort of flour? And pe
rhaps we’ve left out something important? What would make the cookies softer and sweeter?’
‘Butter and sugar’ said Mum. ‘OK, I’ll look for a recipe book tomorrow. Wilson, 2016: 110
The above quotation signifies that Beauty helps her mother in the process to make
delicious cookies. First, she gives an idea to her mother that she needs a recipe book to make delicious cookies. Second, she helps her by giving suggestion to get the right
ingredients for the dough. Third, she helps her mother by suggesting the possibility that causes the failure of the cookies. Beauty helps her mother to make her able to
make delicious cookies instead of judging the mistakes that she has. She even gives idea to her mother to make the cookies taste softer and sweeter. Beauty’s help makes
her mother learn to improve her cooking skill. Then, it makes her mother realizes that she needs to put sugar and butter for the cookies and she also needs to get a recipe
book like what Beauty has suggested Wilson, 2016: 110.
Beauty’s struggles to help her mother are not only by giving ideas, suggestion or solving her problems, but also giving motivation and support to her mother. When
Beauty and her mother leave the house and stay in Rabbit Cove, her mother feels scared. She does not have any plan for their lives and she thinks she should leave
Rabbit Cove and begin a new life in a proper place. However, Beauty likes to stay in Rabbit Cove and she wants to help her mother to survive in Rabbit Cove.
‘Of course I do. I feel dead embarrassed that I was so snotty to him. I think we’d better be on our way tomorrow.’
‘Oh no, Mum. I love it here.’ ‘I know, darling, but we can’t stay here for ever.’
‘Why can’t we?’ ‘This is just our little holiday, you know that. We’ve got to make proper plans.
I’ve been trying so hard, but my head just goes whirling round and round. I’ve got so used to your dad telling me what to do I can’t seem to think for myself
anymore.’
‘So I’ll think for you. We’ll stay here in Rabbit Cove and you’ll get a job, right, and
we’ll find our own little place—’ Wilson, 2016: 240-241
The datum above tells that Beauty wants to help her mother to stay in Rabbit Cove. She says that she will think for her, she reassures her that she will get a job and she
will be able to build a house in Rabbit Cove. It shows that the bonding she has with her mother makes her willing to help her to survive in the new place by her own.
Discrimination that Beauty’s mother receives from her father makes her become dependent. She feels that she has no skill beside making cookies that she just
learns. Therefor e, when Beauty’s mother gets a job in Lily cottage to serve breakfast,
she feels flustered. She never used to work before. As a result, she cannot remember the menu that she should serve to the guests. Knowing her mother’s condition,
Beauty secretly lurks at the guests and helps her mother to give the right order for them.
He sent Mum into the dining room to take the breakfast orders. She got in a terrible fluster at first and couldn’t remember which walkers wanted
veggie sausages and which black pudding, and whether they wanted tea
or coffee, but I’d been lurking in the doorway and knew exactly. Wilson, 2016: 252
The quotation above explains that Beauty struggles against discrimination by helping her mother to survive. She wants to be free from her father; therefore she and her
mother should be independent and make themselves survive by their own. Thus, sisterhood’s bonding is very important for women to gain independence because they
will have courage and spirit to fight against the oppressor as they know they are not alone and there is hope for women to live equally.
3. Optimizing the Opportunity to be Educated