Getting to Know the Characters: Mama

~ Mama ~

Virginie Avegno, main character's mother

• Mama: main character's mother, the only remaining member of Virginie's immediate family
• Desperate: After moving back to Paris, it was very obvious that all Virginie's mother cared about what elevating her position in society. She dreamed of hanging out with and hosting parties with rich and famous. In fact, one of her biggest dreams was to marry Virginie off to a French aristocrat. She was willing to do anything to get herself at that place, even stooping so low that she'd use her own daughter as a means of getting to where she wanted. One example of this was when Mama hired a piano teacher for Virginie named Monsieur Vaury. Although he was much older than Virginie, he stared adoringly at the younger and often covered her hands in kisses and stroked her back inappropriately. When Virginie told her mother this, Mama, of course, didn't believe her. However, it was more of the reason that she couldn't get rid of him, because he was also the teacher that taught the nephew of Princess Mathilde. She saw him as a connection to the higher society, although it was an extremely weak connection, so she didn't easily agree to let him go. 
• Exploitative: Mama is incredibly manipulative and exploitative of her daughter, Virginie, throughout the book. There are many instances where she uses her own daughter and her stunning beauty to elevate her social status. Other than the example above, she also exploits Virginie's beauty, as it often leads to them both being invited to many parties hosted by the upper class. She saw an opportunity in her daughter and she completely took advantage of it for her own benefit. Because of that, she often hosted parties as well as taking Virginie along with her to events and parties.  
• Racist: Throughout the story, there are little instances as well as one big occurrence that proved Mama was racist. One of the biggest examples of her being racist is when she found out that Virginie's best friend from the Convent was an African American passing off as white. She acted immediately when she found out, as she proceeded to write the Convent a letter about the situation, informing her about how they should know that there is a black girl in their white school. Even after she got her best friend kicked out of the school, Mama started to worry about Virginie's skin color and how it has gotten darker, believing that Aurelie's skin color had come off on her daughter, as if it was "contagious." Mama even went as far as taking Virginie to a skin doctor to treat her skin.