The Film which we studied by Greta Gerwig called ‘Lady Bird’ deals with a mix of issues and

problems which we as the reader can relate to. It deals with the difficult mother daughter
bond which has escalated due to their financial struggle and hardship in the past therefore
being the main focus and issue of the film. Throughout the film we watch the two characters
grow and develop, maturing in their relationship, but we unfortunately never see this come to
fruition. Both characters are very strong minded and clash often with opinions, causing what
seems like a bad mother daughter relationship while deep down both know that is not the
case.

As we see early on, Lady Bird is not happy with her life and the situation her and her family
are in. She reinforces this often as she says ‘Do I look like I’m from Sacramento’ or that she
wishes ‘[she] could live through something’. Marion is obviously hurt by this as a mother who
is trying to provide for her daughter and they begin to argue often and again. Marion asks
‘how in the world [she] raised such a snob’ which I think is a good way of describing Lady
Bird in the eyes of her mother. She doesn’t notice all the things her mother does for her and
is ungrateful, reinforcing their toxic relationship when they are together. This completely
changes when they are apart as they know that they are trying their hardest and never
speak a bad word about each other. Marion also goes on to lovingly watch Lady Bird as she
sleeps and gives up more of her time which again shows us their unconditional love although
not shown to each other directly.

The fiery relationship between Lady Bird and her mother Marion is fueled by an underlying
lack of communication and yearning for more of each other's time. Marion, who’s mother
‘was an abusive alcoholic’, struggles to show Lady Bird her feelings and can only express
herself through demeaning comments or passive aggressiveness. This shows in the last
weeks that Lady Bird is still in Sacramento before she goes to college, as her mother is
upset about her departure. She cannot convey her sadness and defaults to ignoring her
daughter who is clearly very upset about this as she asks if she will not even get out of the
car to say goodbye to her. Marion quickly realises, I think in that moment she has an
epiphany, about the departure of her daughter that she, although trying to be as good a
mother as possible, has caused much more harm than she intended through her way of
communication, which leads to what I believe would be her eventual maturation in this
relationship.

Lady Bird’s and Marion’s relationship is passively good and directly bad. As said before,
Marion and Lady Bird have an unconditional love for eachother which is subconsciously not
just linked through their familial roles. Lady Bird asks her mother if she really does like her to
which her mother answers ‘of course I love you’ and Lady Bird follows with ‘But do you like
me?’. At first to us it seems as though Marion only loves her daughter because of the familial
relationship she was born into but I think Marion struggles with this open and direct love and
rather shows her love through actions that go less noticed. Unfortunately here the two clash
again as Lady Bird just wants to be recognised by her mother and never is to the extent she
wants. This clearly hurts them both as they cannot express their true feelings to each other
directly. In the final scene we see the last example of this as Lady Bird calls her mother and
thanks her for everything she has done for her. Her mother doesn’t pick up the phone and
Lady Bird talks to the answer machine, which is a subtle yet effective way to re-emphasise
this notion.
We are left the way the film went previously, with indirect love but a mutual, subconscious
knowledge of it. Lady Bird and her mother never formally resolve their issue but we are left
with positive reassurance that everything will go the way we hope. Although the issue is not
solved to the reader’s satisfaction, the knowledge that it will be in the future is enough to
leave the reader optimistic for their future and a healthy more mature relationship between
the two.