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Lily’s relationship with her mother, Jenny Bloom, comprises a myriad of conflicting emotions. At various points and with varying degrees of intensity, Lily loves, pities, resents, and feels let down by her mother. Lily attempts to protect her, both by lying for her and by standing between her and Lily’s father, but her mother doesn’t protect her in turn. Lily hoped that the day her father hit her, requiring stitches, would be the day her mother stood up to him, that Lily’s injury would be the final straw and would serve as the impetus for their divorce. When her mom instead instructed Lily to lie about the abuse, Lily felt defeated, realizing then that her mother would never leave.
Throughout her life, Lily is determined not to repeat her mother’s mistakes, but the dysfunctional environment in which she grew up makes it difficult for her to avoid them. She is keenly aware that the excuses and rationalizes that spring to mind when Ryle begins to abuse her are eerily similar to those her mom would repeatedly use; she sees her father in Ryle, and herself in her mother, and her understanding of her parents’ relationship takes on a new complexity Lily couldn’t see from the outside. When she tells her mother about Ryle’s abuse and her pregnancy, she anticipates her mother telling her to stay, as she did. Instead, she tells Lily she deserves a better love than Ryle can give her, essentially encouraging her to break the cycle of intergenerational abuse and trauma for the sake of Lily’s own daughter and underscoring the ways in which Jenny herself has grown and changed.
