- When Tereza was fifteen, her mother took her out of school. She went to work as a waitress and gave all her money to her mother, eager to do anything she could to earn her mother's love. She basically ran their household as well.
- Her mother used to walk around the house naked. She had no shame.
- Tereza did, and it used to bother her that her stepfather would walk in to the bathroom all the time when she was bathing. Tereza's shame made her mother angry; who did Tereza think she was? Why did she feel the need to safeguard her beauty?
- Tereza's mother used to make fun of her publicly for her shame at the human body.