Pearls

When Liz Murray's mother finally died of AIDS, Liz wrote her mother, comparing their relationship to pearls from an oyster. Liz writes in Breaking Night, "People think of pearls as beautiful gems, but they do not realize that those pearls actually come from pain; from something hard or dangerous getting trapped where it doesn't belong." Liz actually "oystered" the family's pain until pearls were born: "thousands of tiny losses to withhold." In the end, though, Liz questions whether her silence did any good, for her, or for her mother.

Not wanting to hurt her mother, or push her away, Liz became her mother's caretaker. It is supposed to be the other way around. When children become their parent's caretaker, they are forced to swallow their own feelings, afraid that they will hurt their fragile parent, or push her away. Like the oyster's pearls, the child is trapped.