Lady Bird

Identity Through Maternal Relationship

By Vania Ding

Lady Bird follows Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson, a teenage girl in her last year of high school, and her relationship with her mother. Specifically, the film centers on the conflict between Lady Bird and her mother over her future college, and with it, her new identity. Lady Bird shows a teenage girl’s identity transforming from childhood to adulthood through her relationship with her mother by having the spatial placement between the two within the opening and closing scenes represent the state of their relationship.

The film establishes its focus on the dynamics between childhood and adulthood by having the opening scenes in the motel visually show the mother and daughter as mirror images, emphasizing their conflict as the two of them face opposing directions despite their similarities. It opens on a shot of the two in bed (Gerwig 0:33) with the two facing toward and leaning into each other. Their spatial closeness implies a deep connection between the two, but they also act as reflected images of each other with the divide between the two pillows acting as the reflecting line. This mirror-like relationship, where the two are similar but pointed in opposite directions, is further emphasized as the mother fixes the Lady Bird’s hair (Gerwig 0:43) while the two of them sit in front of a window. The lighting from the window creates a silhouette of the two as they sit in with the same posture, facing each other, with similar haircuts and clothing outlines. Again, they are visually similar, just as a real mother-daughter pair would be, but they face opposite directions with the mother breaking the boundary between them, like how her character continues to push her daughter towards what she thinks is best even if Lady Bird resents her attention.

The conflict between adulthood and childhood shapes Lady Bird’s identity through the merging of the two in the end of the film, represented by her and her mother’s driving scene. Earlier on, Lady Bird refers to herself as “Christine” during a college party (Gerwig 1:23:30), bookending the central conflict around her identity by calling back to the beginning, with her mother refusing to call her by her chosen name “Lady Bird” (Gerwig 3:30). Lady Bird, Christine now, incorporates her mother into her identity by choosing her given name. During the flashback to Christine’s drive in Sacramento, her mother is cut into her exact position, also driving the car (Gerwig 1:28:00). In contrast to their positioning in the opening, they are finally going in the same direction, the editing emphasizing the new closeness Christine feels with her mother. The audio also supports this newfound connection as her mother’s voice, distorted and faded, plays in the background as Christine drives. Even if her mother is no longer physically with her, she has become a part of Christine. 

Lady Bird revolves around the shifting identity of a teenage girl entering college as she passes from childhood to adulthood, shown through her relationship with her mother. The opening and ending of the film bookend Christine’s progression from opposing her connection to mother to accepting it. The change from the two mirroring each other to being in the same spatial position depicts not just the progression of Christine’s understanding towards her mother, but her incorporation of their relationship into her new identity as a young woman.

 

Works Cited

Lady Bird. Directed by Greta Gerwig, A24, 2017. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/browse?jbv=80205227.