Relationships A wise man once said: “Your best friends can also be your worst enemies.” This almost fits perfectly for the main character Jess in Bend It Like Beckham, except that it’s her family who becomes her worst enemy. One of the central themes explored in the novel is how family relationships and friendships affect Jess’ life. One of the major problems developed in the novel is Jess’ expectations to herself versus her parents’ expectations. This is illustrated as Jess wants herself to grow into a professional soccer player. On the other hand, she has her parents who want her to become a traditional Indian lady, that knows how to cook Punjabi. Evidence of this is Jess’ parents’ attitude towards the idea of Jess playing soccer. To prevent …show more content…
She gets help from her friends, but living as different people, when only being one is impossible. Jess gets tremendous help and support by her friends. She has two main friends Tony and Jules. The importance of friendship is explored as Jess needs to rely on both of her friends. This is evident as Jules help her with soccer success and lying for Jess’ parents, while Tony supports her. Both are key elements in Jess’ life, as they each kind of represent one of the two lives Jess is trying to live. Tony is a traditional Indian man, while Jules is a soccer girl on her way to the pros. This means that Tony understands the difficulties Jess faces. However, Jules understands the desire to play professional soccer. Supporting and helping out are some of the qualities a good friend needs, but it isn’t always easy to be a good friend. That’s shown when Jess starts flirting with the soccer coach Joe who Jules and Jess both have a crush on. As Jess was about to kiss Joe Jules sees it and gets really angry. The result of this is terrible. Jules doesn’t speak to Jess at all. This also results in a struggle on the soccer pitch, as the source of Jess’ soccer success doesn’t want to co-operate on the