Willem’s mother was a Danish immigrant. She and Willem’s father worked on a ranch in rural Wyoming all Willem’s life. She died before the novel’s present day, when Willem was still in college. Willem’s parents treated him well, but they had a hard life and this made them rather aloof, pragmatic, and unfeeling. All but two of their children (Willem and his older brother, Hemming) died in childhood, and Hemming was born with a severe form of cerebral palsy which left him confined to a wheelchair, nonverbal, and unable to care for himself. Willem always hated how his parents treated Hemming as a responsibility for them to deal with rather than a child they loved. Willem cuts off contact with his parents following Hemming’s death. After they die, he realizes how much they loved him, even if they couldn’t show it.
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Willem’s Mother Character Timeline in A Little Life
The timeline below shows where the character Willem’s Mother appears in A Little Life. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1: Lispenard Street: Chapter 2
...Icelandic man, had been working on a fish farm in Sweden when he met Willem’s mother, a Danish woman. They had a second child, Hemming, after they moved to America. Hemming...
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Hemming has to have an emergency appendectomy Willem’s second year of college. Their mother calls Willem to tell him the news, which she conveys in an emotionless tone. Hemming’s...
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Willem returns to the city. Three months later, in late May, his mother calls to say that Hemming is on life support. She begs Willem not to come...
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...of a major bank. Still, other parts of their identity were more distinct than Blackness—Malcolm’s mother’s importance in the New York literary scene, for instance, or Malcolm’s father’s wealth. So, Malcolm...
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