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mother, and her baby is adopted by Lucy, the third character that will be explained in
this thesis later. 3. Lucy
The third character is Lucy. Lucy is a baker. Lucy and her mother own a cake shop. Lucy is the only character who is an African-American and has a husband and
the least difficult bond with the mother. Lucy desperately wants to have a baby but she cannot, therefore she wants to adopt a baby but things become difficult. She is an
extrovert as a daughter because she tells everything to her mother. These personalities of Lucy will be explained further.
a. Lucy as a daughter
Lucy is the character who has the least difficult bond with her mother, Ada. She and her mother are working together as bakers in their cake shop. Unlike Karen,
who has to hide her feelings, Lucy is able to express anything up forward in front of her mother. When she does not agree with her mother, she will easily say it.
Although they argue a lot but every time Lucy faces a problem she will run to her mother and ask for her mo
ther’s support. ADA. Was this your idea or his?
LUCY. Please don’t start. I need for you to be with me on this. ADA. I’m with you. I’m just wondering whose idea it was.
LUCY. It was my idea. Garcia, 2009: 12 Lucy desperately wants to have a baby but she is unable to conceive it thus she
decides to adopt a baby and she reassures her mother that the idea of adopting a baby
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really comes from her, not from her husband. Lucy knows that Ada will support her decision even though that Ada might be a little bit hesitating at first.
Ada is the person Lucy calls when she does not know why her adoptive baby cannot stop crying. She feels desperately exhausted because the baby does not stop
cry and she does not understand why. However, Ada comes and helps her soothe the baby. Ada also encourages Lucy because she believes that Lucy can be a good
mother Garcia, 2009: 99-101. As a daughter who has a supportive mother, Lucy is luckier than the previous
two characters. She knows that she will have her mother on her side for whatever decision she makes about her life. Lucy is the happiest daughter of the three
characters in this screenplay. b. Lucy as a woman
As it is mentioned before, Lucy is the only character who is married and believes in the family concept. Lucy is married for four years to Joseph. They have
been desperately trying to have a baby but unfortunately they are unable to conceive it so they give up and decide to adopt a baby Garcia, 2009: 4.
LUCY CONT’D. We could make good parents. Joseph is a very tender man. He’s affectionate. We could learn to love a baby in a minute, even if it wasn’t
ours. Would we be able to name the baby ourselves? Garcia, 2009: 4-5
She reassures Sister Joanne that both she and her husband will be good parents for their future adoptive baby. She believes that a child will make her marriage, which is
already happy, become happier.
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Unfortunately, Lucy is wrong about Joseph. She thinks that her husband is with her when deciding to adopt even though her mother in law discourages this
idea. Joseph leaves Lucy because he actually does not want to have an adoptive child. However, Lucy is still very determined to have a baby so she sticks around to
the plan to adopt the baby even though her marriage falls apart. LUCY. It’s over.
ADA. You’re angry right now, Lucy – and you should be. But you guys need to talk some more.
Lucy shakes no LUCY. I can still adopt the baby on my own. Garcia, 2009:84
LUCY. […] I’ve committed and I’m not just going to walk away from it. It’s a baby
– it’s not shopping for shoes. I want that baby. That’s my god-damn baby. Garcia, 2009: 85
Lucy tells her mother that her marriage is already over because Joseph left her but she
still wants to adopt the baby and tells her mother that she is already committed to the decision about the baby.
Comparing with the previous two characters, Lucy is the character that has the least difficult personality since she is the only character who has the least
challenging and difficult bond with her mother in the screenplay. Even though her marriage falls apart, she is able to overcome and deal with her situation because she
has full support from her mother.
B. The Depiction of the Bond Between the Main Characters and Their Mothers
1. Karen and Nora
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As it has been mentioned previously that Karen has difficult relationship with her mother, Nora, since she hardly be honest to herself in front of her mother.
Although Karen has tried any possible ways to make Nora happy with her, Nora still gives her cold responses. Karen feels that her mother is disappointed with her because
of her mistake that happened in the past. INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
– NIGHT Karen’s mother is in bed, awake. She’s pale and tired. Karen sits in a chair
nearby. KAREN. That
young doctor said he’d come back after nine to talk to us. A beat.
NORA. I don’t want to die here. KAREN. You’re not going to die.
Nora just looks at Karen. KAREN CONT’D. You’re not going to die. You’re going to be fine.
NORA. Do you expect me to live forever? KAREN. Don’t start with that.
NORA. Even if I could I wouldn’t want to. It’s one disappointment after another.
A beat. Nora looks at Karen intently and for a long moment it looks like she’s about
to say something but she stops herself. KAREN. What? What, mom?
Nora says nothing. KAREN CONT’D. What?
Then Nora turns away, tears running down her face. Karen looks at her, perplexed. She reaches out to touch her mother’s hand, but Nora pulls the
arm away slowly.
INT. HOSPITAL ROOM – AFTERNOON
A telenovela plays on the TV. Sofia sits tear the bed with Christi on her lap. Karen stands. Christi puts up her hands to play a game of palms with her
mom. They play the game quickly and quietly – expertly. Karen sees her
mother looking at them and smiling. Garcia, 2009: 24-24A Both scenes depict the difficult bond between Karen and Nora. The earlier scene that
happens in the hospital in the night before is showing how Karen actually tries to be
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patient with her mother and encourages her mother that she will be just fine but unfortunately Nora answers that she prefers to die rather than being disappointed
again. When Karen tries to hold Nora’s hand, she pulls her hands away. The next scene happens in the same room in the hospital in the next day at afternoon. This
scene depicts that Nora has a better relationship with their servant, Sofia and Christi, her daughter. Karen sees that both of them can make Nora smiles and Karen never
see her mother smiles at her. No matter what Karen still stays beside her mother in the hospital until her mother dies eventually. This shows that as a daughter Karen is
really trying to be such a good daughter in front of her mother despite the fact that her mother treats her coldly especially since her mistake in her past.
NORA’S BEDROOM – DAY Karen opens the curtain and takes off the sheets from her mother’s bed.
KAREN V.O. She’s gone now. She will never see your face and you will never see hers. There will always be silence between you.
Intercut with Ka ren placing the urn containing her mother’s ashes on the
floor inside a closet. After placing the urn she stands there and looks at it. KAREN CONT’D. I don’t want that for us. For you and me.
Karen kneels down again, opens the urn and looks at the ashes. She smells them.
Back to Karen writing at the kitchen table.
KAREN CONT’D. I know it in my heart that we will meet one day. And I will ask you to forgive me. Garcia, 2009: 34
Karen’s voice over above tells that she implicitly blames her mother for not looking for her daugh
ter’s existence. The scene intercuts with the scene when Karen places the urn of her mother’s ashes, looks at her mother’s ashes, and Karen’s voice over
says that she does not want what she and her mother have to happen to her daughter
