The narrator’s mother Character Analysis in The Boat

Although her maiden name provides the namesake for the titular boat, the Jenny Lynn, MacLeod never reveals the narrator’s mother’s current last name. The narrator’s mother is a tall, strong woman who comes from a long line of people who lived by and fished the sea. She was beautiful when she was younger, and was many years younger than her husband, the narrator’s father, when they married. Together they had several daughters (the narrator’s sisters), with the narrator being the youngest child. Her brother (the narrator’s uncle) works her husband on the boat. By the time the narrator’s memories begin, his mother hasn’t slept in the same room as his father for a while. Perhaps more than anything else, the narrator’s mother values her family’s traditional life and order. She keeps her house neat and organized, with the exception of the one room she can’t control: her husband’s bedroom (which spills over into the common kitchen area). Initially, her daughters help her keep the house in order, but as they get older, the mother loses them almost as soon as they discover their father’s books, which sets them on a path to eventually leaving home to marry wealthy men in distant cities. The narrator’s mother disdains these men as effete and worthless despite their financial success, and cuts off contact with her daughters. Eventually, when the narrator’s sisters all leave home, the narrator’s mother pins all her hopes on him to keep alive the family tradition, even pressuring him to quit school in order to help with the boat. (She herself hasn’t read a book since high school and finds them a waste of time.) The narrator wants to please her, but ultimately, he ends up leaving the community to get an education, in large part because his father’s tragic death at sea leaves him nothing to uphold or continue. The mother, however, never leaves her community, continuing to live in relative poverty and resenting the narrator for leaving all the while. Throughout the story, she never changes, and MacLeod shows through her how her devotion to tradition offers strength and resilience but also a suffocating rigidity that can lead to loneliness and misery in an always changing world.

The narrator’s mother Quotes in The Boat

The The Boat quotes below are all either spoken by The narrator’s mother or refer to The narrator’s 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:

Cultural Heritage, Tradition, and Change Theme Icon

When we returned to the house everyone made a great fuss over my precocious excursion and asked, “How did you like the boat?” “Were you afraid in the boat?” “Did you cry in the boat?” They repeated “the boat” at the end of all their questions and I knew it must be very important to everyone.

Related Characters: The narrator, The narrator’s father, The narrator’s mother

Related Symbols: The Boat

Page Number and Citation: 3

Explanation and Analysis:

She was thirty-two feet long and nine wide, and was powered by an engine from a Chevrolet truck. She had a marine clutch and a high-speed reverse gear and was painted light green with the name Jenny Lynn stencilled in black letters on her bow and painted on an oblong plate across her stern. Jenny Lynn had been my mother’s maiden name and the boat was called after her as another link in the chain of tradition. Most of the boats that berthed at the wharf bore the names of some female member of their owner’s household.

Related Characters: The narrator, The narrator’s mother

Related Symbols: The Boat

Page Number and Citation: 4

Explanation and Analysis:

The narrator’s mother Character Timeline in The Boat

The timeline below shows where the character The narrator’s mother appears in The Boat. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Generational Differences and Inheritances Theme Icon

The narrator jumps to his first memory of his mother. He remembers her as also being obsessed with “the boat,” doing the tasks necessary to... (full context)

The narrator reveals that it was his mother who kept the rest of the house so organized. The narrator describes her as being... (full context)

...don’t fit him well. His “friendly clothes,” some of which were knitted by the narrator’s mother, are left sitting on the sole chair in the room. When people visited him, he... (full context)

...magazine advertisements. Originally, the father purchased these books from the ads himself (which the narrator’s mother disapproved of, because of the cost), but eventually the narrator’s sisters, who had moved away... (full context)

The narrator’s mother hated the mess in his father’s room, and she stopped sleeping in the room shortly... (full context)

The narrator’s sisters are all tall and beautiful like their mother, and red-haired as their father was before his went white.) All his sisters did well... (full context)

...sisters play on the wharf with other children, but they do it anyway when their mother sends them on errands. [BF1]Unlike the narrator’s father, his mother doesn’t care about what the... (full context)

...to clean up the mess, but eventually they start reading one of the books. The mother disapproves and tells them to stop reading “that trash” and help with work. (full context)

Eventually, the mother begins to mount an organized opposition to what the narrator’s sisters are doing. While not... (full context)

...jobs at a big American-owned seafood restaurant on the wharf that draws in tourists. The mother hates this arrangement because the restaurant owners and patrons aren’t “our people.” She gets angry... (full context)

...looks gray and tired. The narrator wonders what would happen if his father killed his mother, right there, while he’s watching. But the narrator’s father goes back to his room, and... (full context)

...make decent money as waitresses, so they buy the father a razor and buy the mother the types of clothes that she usually likes, but she puts these clothes away in... (full context)

...in the restaurant continues as the years go by. They face angry questions from the mother and try to avoid her, but they have long conversations with the father, pushing his... (full context)

...rich and handsome, and none of them are fishermen. Despite these men’s financial success, the mother resents them, believing them to be “a combination of the lazy, the effeminate, the dishonest... (full context)

Eventually, the narrator is alone with his mother and father in the house where his sisters had also once lived. When the narrator... (full context)

...also his father’s partner, and while the father stays in bed the uncle helps the mother and the narrator make lobster trapping gear for the boat. The season starts May first,... (full context)

The next morning, the narrator goes back to school. His mother disapproves of this choice. But his father makes a surprising recovery and gets the Jenny... (full context)

...becoming parents themselves. The narrator continues to fish with his father into September. The narrator’s mother says that the narrator has “given added years” to his father’s life. (full context)

The narrator feels uneasy knowing that his mother lives alone and doesn’t get much from his father’s life insurance policy. She’s too proud... (full context)

The narrator’s mother Character Analysis

The narrator’s mother Quotes in The Boat

The Boat Quotes

The narrator’s mother Character Timeline in The Boat