An Unquiet Mind

by

Kay Redfield Jamison

Kay’s Mother Character Analysis

Kay’s mother was a pragmatic, kind, and conservative woman whose steadiness balanced out her husband (Kay’s father) and his mercurial and volatile moods. Thoughtful and supportive—even when the young Kay rebelled against her strict, mannered, military upbringing—Kay’s mother would later come to stay by Kay’s side through the worst of her depression in the wake of her daughter’s suicide attempt.
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Kay’s Mother Character Timeline in An Unquiet Mind

The timeline below shows where the character Kay’s Mother appears in An Unquiet Mind. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Into the Sun
Madness Theme Icon
...was given to excess, yet “there was a contagious magic to his expansiveness,” she writes. Kay’s mother described her husband as a kind of “Pied Piper”—and the description is apt for a... (full context)
Madness Theme Icon
Love as Medicine Theme Icon
Kay’s mother , meanwhile, was more pragmatic—she always wanted to be kind and fair. A conservative and... (full context)
Chapter 5: The Charnel House
Madness Theme Icon
Love as Medicine Theme Icon
Stigma and Society Theme Icon
...led her down the “cold and colder and colder still” road “from suicide to life.” Kay’s mother , too, stayed with her for a long while and helped her readjust to life... (full context)