Helen drinks, she is poor, living off of men putting them before Jo, she is sarcastic and cold when it comes to Jo “I can’t bear to be parted from you” and inappropriately shares her sex-life with her daughter but worse of all, she regrets that she has had a child; many of these attitudes make Jo fell disgusted towards her mother, making her even more insecure.
Jo only being a child is scared and vulnerable, not having a mother rollmodle or any advice from her mother “It’s your life, ruin it your own way”, Jo without noticing she is following some of her mother’s patterns making the some of the same mistakes, and following certain life styles, which are the same things that made her feel disgusted of her mother.
Jo fells jealous of the attention her mother gets from other men, and as she has never been felt loved by anyone and has no experience of love whatsoever, Jo with no experience and with out an a advice a traditional mother would give, she soon gets pregnant.
Helen moves with a man leaving Jo alone. Once she is pregnant and having no friends, Jo lives with Geoff, an homosexual that at a time was also very strange and criticized in society.
In some way, Geoff shows a caring attitude towards Jo that Helen never had “Why don’t you go back to school”.
Jo and Geoff are a very good couple, for the first time Jo really feels loved and she is very happy.
Helen comes back, she is not interested on her daughter, that only reason she is there is that Peter; her “lover” has kicked her out.
Helen quickly gets rid of Geoff in a very cruel way “Oh, you shut up. Sling your hook”
When Helen finds that Jo is pregnant, she is interested in caring about the baby, but when she finds out that the baby’s father is black and that most likely the baby will too, she reacts in a calm but destroying sarcasm.
Reading the play a Taste of honey we can deduce that Helen had a similar childhood than Jo, and that probably Jo´s son will probably have the same problems she had, basically being a non-wanted child.
Pablo Hernández
