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Lily’s mother is symbolic of how women show their love for their daughters by inflicting pain on them. As Mama’s feet were poorly bound when she was a girl, she is determined to do better for her own daughters. Mama is driven by ambition to make this reality, especially once she learns that Lily’s feet could be the smallest and most beautiful in the county. Mama is unyielding in her objective of perfectly binding her daughters’ feet, to the point that her youngest daughter dies from an infection during the process. Before Lily is married, Mama compares the marital duty of sex to footbinding, explaining that a woman must endure ugliness and pain to fulfill her worth. Mama is also unsympathetic to Elder Sister’s plight when she returns from her marital home, sobbing about the abuse she receives from her in-laws. To Mama, this is simply the way things are for women.

However, it is clear that Mama is not unique in her treatment of her daughters, as this “mother love” is expected of women who want to ensure their daughters’ lives are not worthless. Mama shows she can be caring as she keeps Snow Flower’s secret from Lily. Though Mama has ambitions for Lily’s marriage, she does not judge Snow Flower’s family’s predicament. Mama accepts the anger Lily directs at her instead of Snow Flower or Madame Wang. In the end, Mama gets what she wanted, as Lily rises to the title of Lady Lu. However, she and Lily never reconcile, showing how complicated the relationship between a mother and daughter can be.

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