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Jake
Dibs’s maternal grandmother is one of the few people who empathizes with Dibs early on in his life. Unlike Dibs’s mother, who constantly tests Dibs, Dibs’s grandmother simply lets him be himself—and as a result, they have a good relationship. In his therapy sessions with Dr. Axline, Dibs often describes how much he loves his grandmother. Towards the end of the book, he even gives her the special branch that Jake gave him—an indication of his trust in her and her understanding of him.
Dibs’s Grandmother Quotes in Dibs in Search of Self
The Dibs in Search of Self quotes below are all either spoken by Dibs’s Grandmother or refer to Dibs’s Grandmother. 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:
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Chapter 17 Quotes
Always testing him. Always doubting his capacity. Trying to get closer to him and all the time only building a wall between us. And he always did just enough to keep me at it. I don’t think any child was ever so tormented with the constant demands made upon him that he pass this test and that test—always, always he had to prove that he had capacity. He had no peace. Except when his grandmother came to visit. They had a good relationship with each other. He relaxed with her. He didn’t talk much to her. But she accepted him the way he was and she always believed in him. She used to tell me that if I relaxed and let him alone he’d come out of it all right.
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Dibs’s Grandmother Character Timeline in Dibs in Search of Self
The timeline below shows where the character Dibs’s Grandmother appears in Dibs in Search of Self. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 8
...parents’ fault. Dibs’s mother says that the only person to whom Dibs connected was his grandmother. Dibs and Dorothy don’t get along at all, which is why she sends Dorothy away...
(full context)
Chapter 11
...walks over to the window and looks at the church, explaining that Jake and his grandmother go to church, but his father and mother don’t, so he and Dorothy don’t go....
(full context)
Chapter 13
...the sink and washes them, jumping up and down with laughter. He explains that his grandmother sent him some dishes like these. His grandmother is coming home soon and he loves...
(full context)
Chapter 15
...that someone may or may not be buried there. Dibs then says that while his grandmother has always loved him, his father has not always loved him. But his father likes...
(full context)
Chapter 17
...that this tormented him and built an emotional wall between them. She says that Dibs’s grandmother accepted him the way he was and believed in him, and they have a good...
(full context)
Chapter 20
...more sessions before they both go away for summer vacation. He also says that his grandmother is going to spend the summer with them this year. Dibs then picks up the...
(full context)
...up the nursing bottle and says he’s just a baby who can’t do anything, instructing grandmother to “take care of baby.” When Dibs returns to the mother doll, he asks angrily...
(full context)
...gift for each of his family members at school and he wants to give his grandmother a piece of the branch from his favorite tree. He then picks up the mother...
(full context)
Chapter 22
...houses, which he designates as his house and Axline’s house; he also sets up his grandmother’s house. Dibs sets up a church, a jail, and a big chestnut tree, and he...
(full context)
Chapter 23
Dibs wonders what God is like. His grandmother says that God is like a Father in heaven, but he hopes that God isn’t...
(full context)
