The film begins in 1947, when Lora Meredith (Lana Turner), a struggling white widow with plans to become a famous Broadway actress, loses track of her young daughter Suzie….. .
In the movie “Imitations of Life”, Annie is shown to have taken up a job of being a nanny for Lora’s daughter, Suzie. Lora was determined to become a successful actress some day. So, she was focused on her career at the cost of her daughter’s bringing up. Annie herself is a widowed single mother of a girl named Sarah Jane and black. So, Annie actually raises both Suzie and Sarah Jane. While, Lora, eventually still maintains a casual relationship with her daughter Suzie.
Sarah Jane, on the other hand, has a lighter complexion than her mother, and often tries hard to pass for a white. This, indeed, hurts her mother Annie.
Sarah also starts dating a white boy in her teenage. Unfortunately, she is badly beaten by the boy when he learns that she is black. This further heats the animosity between her and her mother. She eventually takes up a job at a nightclub and lies to Annie that she works at a library.
Later, as the story progresses, Sarah Jane runs away form the house and this further worsens the already weakened health of Annie. Lora hires a detective to find Sarah. She was found in California. Annie flies there to see her daughter for the last time. Her return to New York marks the end of her life as she passes away shortly.
Finally, as per her last wishes, Annie is given a very lavish funeral. And suddenly, Sarah Jane appears from nowhere to bid farewell to her mother.
It is evident from the above description that, Annie is the one who deserves more sympathy than Sarah Jane. Annie, having had a daughter of her own, had agreed to take up the responsibility of Lora’s daughter Suzie too. Annie, being a black woman, had received bitter vibes of animosity from her own daughter. Sarah did not want to be known as Annie’s daughter, as she had a fairer complexion than her mother. Sarah must have definitely, in due course of time, come to know the racism that is still prevalent in many parts of the globe. She didn’t want to be a part of the ignored ones. She had an advantage of a fair complexion, which she used to get rid of her real identity.
Annie was certainly hurt by her daughter’s behavior. No mother can take such a displeasing behavior from her children.
Racism, it is concluded, was widely prevalent in almost all parts of the United States. It has plagued America since 1959. Sarah was struck by this classification of whites and coloreds. In order to run away from what she really was, she took the path of lying and pretence. But, the most important point is that, “If you were an alien watching the movies you’d be scratching your head trying to figure out what was so very terrible about being black. In neither film are there any cafes with signs saying “Whites Only.”
The black characters never have to sit at the back of the bus. There’s no mention of slavery, lynching, or the civil rights movement.”(Larbalestier Justin) Annie, thereby, deserves complete sympathy from the viewers. Sarah, on the other hand, has not done any such act which could shift the sympathy towards her. She had but hurt her own mother on a very serious issue, of being blacks.
Works Cited Page
Larbalestier Justin. Imitation of Life. 2008. Web.