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Father
Sterling’s mother died four years before the memoir begins, when Sterling was seven. Her death forced Sterling to mature more quickly than he otherwise might have, but his eccentric manner of collecting unusual pets suggests he’s trying to fill a hole that she left. The inexplicable cruelty of her premature death drives Sterling to theological speculation. His mother herself was a biologist and instructed Sterling in theological matters, teaching him that evolution and the existence of God were not mutually exclusive. Sterling’s experience raising and then having to say goodbye to Rascal seems to help him gain perspective on his mother’s death.
Mother Quotes in Rascal
The Rascal quotes below are all either spoken by Mother or refer to Mother. 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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2. June Quotes
Perhaps a psychologist might say that I had substituted pets for a family. I had a human family, of course—interesting, well-educated, and affectionate. But Mother was dead, my father often away on business trips, my brother Herschel fighting in France, and my sisters Theo and Jessica now living their adult lives.
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We were probably as happy as anyone can be in our world.
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4. August Quotes
My mother had told me that seeds carry in their “memory” the whole complex pattern of stem and leaf and flower and fruit, and she had shown me how the stamens and pistils begin the seed-making process all over again. It seemed miraculous then, and no less miraculous now.
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It seemed a miracle that anything as young as fingerling trout or grouse chicks or my small raccoon could move along this watercourse among boulders as old as the world—the new life of this very season amid granite predating even the first life on the globe.
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5. September Quotes
Then I had a sad but happy thought. If Ursa Major, the Great Bear, was my constellation, Ursa Minor, the Little Bear, was by natural right Rascal’s constellation. Long years after we were both gone, there we still would be, swimming across the midnight sky together.
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7. November Quotes
“Oh, Sterling, what a charming little animal.” She put an arm around me as we watched, and I suddenly had an overwhelming desire to tell her how much she meant to me.
I think she knew without words, because when I looked up she was not laughing, only smiling tenderly.
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8. December, January, February Quotes
“And then you could put it all down,” Aunt Lillie said, “the way it is now . . . case weather, the fog, the lantern light . . . and the voices of the men—hear them—coming in for breakfast. You could keep it just like this forever.”
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Mother Character Timeline in Rascal
The timeline below shows where the character Mother appears in Rascal. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
1. May
...father Herman is a Swiss-German immigrant and a cruel misanthrope, whom Oscar fears, but his mother is a kindly Norwegian woman. Oscar’s mother typically gives Sterling Norwegian pastries around Christmas, a...
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...starts explaining that they found a baby raccoon, which only angers Herman further. Suddenly, Oscar’s mother comes and calms Herman down, sending him to bed. She welcomes the boys in and...
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2. June
...an actual family, as his older siblings have all scattered in the years since his mother’s death. He broods on theological issues, such as how an all-merciful God could take his...
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...on his handlebars. Rascal has come to love speeding on the bike. They pass Sterling’s mother’s gravestone on the way, momentarily darkening his mood, but considering the pleasures of the beautiful...
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Suddenly, Sterling’s sister Theo arrives in a car. Theo took care of Sterling after their mother died, and Sterling is thrilled to see her, but he’s somewhat intimidated by her as...
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3. July
...a reckless speculator, but his tactics sometimes pay off. They hadn’t for most of Sterling’s mother’s life, and her constant worry probably sent her to an early grave. Today, however, Sterling...
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4. August
...war garden, although he helps himself to many of the peas. Sterling recalls how his mother had taught him about the innate “memory” in seeds, which encode the plant they will...
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...at the contrast between the young animals and vegetation and their ancient geological environment. His mother had once taught him about the miracle of evolution and how it’s not incompatible with...
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7. November
...father presents him with a family heirloom, a watch with a chain made of his mother’s braided hair.
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8. December, January, February
...masks their sadness that Herschel and Theo won’t be joining them this year, and their mother is of course dead.
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In the kitchen Lillie tends to Sterling and Rascal. She deflects a question about Sterling’s mother and tells him instead that he’s at the age where he should start thinking about...
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