Juliet Takes a Breath

Throughout the novel, we see Juliet’s relationship with her mother change, as well as see other mother/daughter relationship dynamics. At the beginning of the novel, Juliet is nervous about coming out to her family, especially because her mother “was the gravitational pull that kept [her] stuck to this Earth” (12). Juliet loves her mom and cares a lot about what her mother thinks of her. When her mother reacts poorly to her coming out, it devastates Juliet. Her mother doesn’t accept Juliet for who she is, so Juliet goes searching for other women in her life who can.

Although Harlowe ends up becoming somewhat of a mother figure to Juliet, Juliet still constantly thinks of her own mother. When she first reaches Portland for her internship, Juliet feels nervous and uncertain of herself. She thinks about how whenever she’d be anxious at home, she’d rest her head in her mother’s lap and feel her run her fingers through her hair and “calm all the internal noise” (52). For Juliet, her mother was a source of quiet and calm, and without her Juliet has to learn to either lean on herself or find someone else to guide her.