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Shepsie Tirschwell
Mrs. Wishnow is Seldon’s mother and Mr. Wishnow’s wife (and later, his widow). Mrs. Wishnow is a kind and empathetic woman who wants her son to fit in. Shortly after she and Sheldon are relocated to the rural Danville, Kentucky under the Homestead 42 act, Mrs. Wishnow is brutally murdered in an anti-Semitic riot that breaks out in Louisville.
Mrs. Wishnow Quotes in The Plot Against America
The The Plot Against America quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Wishnow or refer to Mrs. Wishnow. 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 9 Quotes
My father was a rescuer and orphans were his specialty. A displacement even greater than having to move to Union or to leave for Kentucky was to lose one’s parents and be orphaned. Witness, he would tell you, what had happened to Alvin. Witness what had happened to his sister-in-law after Grandma had died. No one should be motherless and fatherless. Motherless and fatherless you are vulnerable to manipulation, to influences—you are rootless and you are vulnerable to everything.
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This was how Seldon came to live with us. After their safe return to Newark from Kentucky, Sandy moved into the sun parlor and Seldon took over where Alvin and Aunt Evelyn had left off—as the person in the twin bed next to mine shattered by the malicious indignities of Lindbergh’s America. There was no stump for me to care for this time. The boy himself was the stump, and until he was taken to live with his mother’s married sister in Brooklyn ten months later, I was the prosthesis.
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Mrs. Wishnow Character Timeline in The Plot Against America
The timeline below shows where the character Mrs. Wishnow appears in The Plot Against America. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5: Never Before
After dinner, Bess and Herman take food to Mrs. Wishnow and Seldon. Philip tells Sandy the rumor he heard about Mr. Wishnow having committed suicide....
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...They go down to the Wishnows’ and ask if they’ve seen Bess, but Seldon and Mrs. Wishnow say they haven’t. Philip’s aversion to Seldon is worse than ever—he avoids him at school...
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Chapter 6: Their Country
...Philip that there’s nothing to be afraid of in Kentucky. Philip asks if Seldon and Mrs. Wishnow can go instead, and Evelyn again asks if someone has put him up to visiting...
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...Herman and Bess host a small group of concerned Jewish MetLife agents and their wives. Mrs. Wishnow drops Philip, Sandy, and Seldon off at a movie theater in the next town over....
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...and distressed by the loss of his clothing. Bess, who has heard what’s happening from Mrs. Wishnow but who is clueless as to what’s going on, suggests that Philip give Seldon some...
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Chapter 7: The Winchell Riots
On the day Seldon and Mrs. Wishnow leave, Philip is shocked by his sadness and pain as they go. He cannot stop...
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Chapter 9: Perpetual Fear
...he has been orphaned. Philip reveals that Seldon would later turn out to be right— Mrs. Wishnow has been killed in the Louisville riots, though no one will know until her remains...
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...up. Seldon cries out that his mother must really be dead. Bess assures Seldon that Mrs. Wishnow is fine and will be there to pick him up at the Mawhinneys’ the next...
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...up Seldon and bring him home to live with them—is that he is responsible for Mrs. Wishnow ’s death and Seldon’s troubles.
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