Anxious People

Anxious People

by

Fredrik Backman

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Anxious People makes teaching easy.

The Monkey and the Frog/The Robber’s Daughters Character Analysis

The robber’s daughters are six and eight years old, and they adore their mother. Their nicknames, the monkey and the frog, came from how they moved when the robber was pregnant with them, and the robber only ever calls her daughters by their nicknames. The robber and her husband often comment that they don’t deserve such good kids—the girls seldom, if ever, fight and never make each other feel bad. However, the robber becomes very concerned for her daughters’ emotional wellbeing during the divorce, especially once she realizes that her older daughter (incorrectly) believes that her parents are fighting over her. The robber ultimately chooses to rob the bank for her daughters’ sake, highlighting the lengths that parents, within the world of the novel, will go to in order to protect their kids.

The Monkey and the Frog/The Robber’s Daughters Quotes in Anxious People

The Anxious People quotes below are all either spoken by The Monkey and the Frog/The Robber’s Daughters or refer to The Monkey and the Frog/The Robber’s Daughters. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Parenting and Fear Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1  Quotes

Sometimes it hurts, it really hurts, for no other reason than the fact that our skin doesn’t feel like it’s ours. Sometimes we panic, because the bills need paying and we have to be grown-up and we don’t know how, because it’s so horribly, desperately easy to fail at being grown-up.

Because everyone loves someone, and anyone who loves someone has had those desperate nights where we lie awake trying to figure out how we can afford to carry on being human beings. Sometimes that makes us do things that seem ridiculous in hindsight, but which felt like the only way out at the time.

One single really bad idea. That’s all it takes.

Related Characters: The Bank Robber, Anna-Lena, Roger, Lennart/The Rabbit, Jim/Jack’s Dad/The Older Policeman, The Monkey and the Frog/The Robber’s Daughters
Page Number: 2
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

Because you’d never rob a bank, so you haven’t got anything in common with this bank robber.

Except fear, possibly. Because maybe you’ve been really frightened at some time, and so was the bank robber. Possibly because the bank robber had small children and had therefore had a lot of practice being afraid. Perhaps you, too, have children, in which case you’ll know that you’re frightened the whole time, frightened of not knowing everything and of not having the energy to do everything and of not coping with everything.

Related Characters: The Bank Robber, The Monkey and the Frog/The Robber’s Daughters
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 40 Quotes

“I just wish Roger could feel important again.”

Julia didn’t seem to follow the logic.

“Grandchildren would make him feel important?”

Anna-Lena smiled weakly.

“Have you ever held a three-year-old by the hand on the way home from preschool?”

“No.”

“You’re never more important than you are then.”

Related Characters: Anna-Lena (speaker), Julia (speaker), The Bank Robber, Roger, Ro, Lennart/The Rabbit, The Monkey and the Frog/The Robber’s Daughters
Page Number: 177
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 65 Quotes

Because it wasn’t Lennart who opened the door when Jim showed up with the pizzas. It was the bank robber, the real bank robber. Both Roger and Lennart had insisted on being allowed to wear the ski mask, but after a long pause she had said no. She had looked at them, her voice gentle with appreciation, and then given them a determined nod.

“Obviously I can’t set a good example to my daughters and teach them not to do idiotic things now. But I might at least be able to show them how you take responsibility for your actions.”

Related Characters: The Bank Robber (speaker), Roger, Lennart/The Rabbit, Jim/Jack’s Dad/The Older Policeman, The Monkey and the Frog/The Robber’s Daughters
Page Number: 291
Explanation and Analysis:

“What did you need the money from the bank robbery for?”

The desperation on her face revealed the chaos in her heart as she said: “To pay the rent. I needed six thousand five hundred. My husband’s lawyer was threatening to take the girls away from me if I didn’t have anywhere to live.”

Jim held onto the handrail to stop himself collapsing as his heart broke. Empathy is like vertigo. Six thousand five hundred, because she thought she’d lose her children otherwise. Her children.

“There are rules, legislation, no one can just take your children away from you simply because…,” he began, then thought better of it and said: “But now they can…now you’ve held up a bank and…” His voice almost gave out as he whispered: “You poor child, what have you got yourself mixed up in?”

Related Characters: The Bank Robber (speaker), Jim/Jack’s Dad/The Older Policeman (speaker), Jack’s Sister, The Monkey and the Frog/The Robber’s Daughters
Page Number: 294
Explanation and Analysis:
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Anxious People PDF

The Monkey and the Frog/The Robber’s Daughters Quotes in Anxious People

The Anxious People quotes below are all either spoken by The Monkey and the Frog/The Robber’s Daughters or refer to The Monkey and the Frog/The Robber’s Daughters. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Parenting and Fear Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1  Quotes

Sometimes it hurts, it really hurts, for no other reason than the fact that our skin doesn’t feel like it’s ours. Sometimes we panic, because the bills need paying and we have to be grown-up and we don’t know how, because it’s so horribly, desperately easy to fail at being grown-up.

Because everyone loves someone, and anyone who loves someone has had those desperate nights where we lie awake trying to figure out how we can afford to carry on being human beings. Sometimes that makes us do things that seem ridiculous in hindsight, but which felt like the only way out at the time.

One single really bad idea. That’s all it takes.

Related Characters: The Bank Robber, Anna-Lena, Roger, Lennart/The Rabbit, Jim/Jack’s Dad/The Older Policeman, The Monkey and the Frog/The Robber’s Daughters
Page Number: 2
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

Because you’d never rob a bank, so you haven’t got anything in common with this bank robber.

Except fear, possibly. Because maybe you’ve been really frightened at some time, and so was the bank robber. Possibly because the bank robber had small children and had therefore had a lot of practice being afraid. Perhaps you, too, have children, in which case you’ll know that you’re frightened the whole time, frightened of not knowing everything and of not having the energy to do everything and of not coping with everything.

Related Characters: The Bank Robber, The Monkey and the Frog/The Robber’s Daughters
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 40 Quotes

“I just wish Roger could feel important again.”

Julia didn’t seem to follow the logic.

“Grandchildren would make him feel important?”

Anna-Lena smiled weakly.

“Have you ever held a three-year-old by the hand on the way home from preschool?”

“No.”

“You’re never more important than you are then.”

Related Characters: Anna-Lena (speaker), Julia (speaker), The Bank Robber, Roger, Ro, Lennart/The Rabbit, The Monkey and the Frog/The Robber’s Daughters
Page Number: 177
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 65 Quotes

Because it wasn’t Lennart who opened the door when Jim showed up with the pizzas. It was the bank robber, the real bank robber. Both Roger and Lennart had insisted on being allowed to wear the ski mask, but after a long pause she had said no. She had looked at them, her voice gentle with appreciation, and then given them a determined nod.

“Obviously I can’t set a good example to my daughters and teach them not to do idiotic things now. But I might at least be able to show them how you take responsibility for your actions.”

Related Characters: The Bank Robber (speaker), Roger, Lennart/The Rabbit, Jim/Jack’s Dad/The Older Policeman, The Monkey and the Frog/The Robber’s Daughters
Page Number: 291
Explanation and Analysis:

“What did you need the money from the bank robbery for?”

The desperation on her face revealed the chaos in her heart as she said: “To pay the rent. I needed six thousand five hundred. My husband’s lawyer was threatening to take the girls away from me if I didn’t have anywhere to live.”

Jim held onto the handrail to stop himself collapsing as his heart broke. Empathy is like vertigo. Six thousand five hundred, because she thought she’d lose her children otherwise. Her children.

“There are rules, legislation, no one can just take your children away from you simply because…,” he began, then thought better of it and said: “But now they can…now you’ve held up a bank and…” His voice almost gave out as he whispered: “You poor child, what have you got yourself mixed up in?”

Related Characters: The Bank Robber (speaker), Jim/Jack’s Dad/The Older Policeman (speaker), Jack’s Sister, The Monkey and the Frog/The Robber’s Daughters
Page Number: 294
Explanation and Analysis: