Mildred Pierce

The dynamic between Mildred and her daughter Veda is a one-sided chase: Veda pushes Mildred away, while Mildred does whatever is necessary to draw Veda back into her life. Even when Veda goes far enough to get her mother to eject her from the house, it is clear that Mildred will never really let her daughter go. Cain complicates this already dysfunctional maternal love by injecting into it a sexual note—one that plays on the sexual competitiveness between Mildred and Veda. When Mildred ejects Veda from her home for blackmailing a wealthy family with a fake pregnancy, “It didn't occur to [Mildred] that she was acting less like a mother than like a lover who has unexpectedly discovered an act of faithlessness, and avenged it” (240).

To lure Veda back, Mildred undertakes an increasingly wild series of machinations: trying to pay for Veda’s voice lessons, or marrying an ex that Veda likes just to prop him up in his old life of luxury to entice Veda back to his elite circles. Throughout, their unequal levels of affection make the reader wonder why Mildred imagines that any amount of love or money will get Veda to respond with genuine warmth when it clearly is not going to happen.