Bruce’s Mother Character Analysis

Bruce’s mother, like his father, is a conservative person and had Bruce at a relatively old age. Also like his father, she communicates very little explicitly. After Bruce takes up hardcore surfing, she silently tends to his scrapes every time he comes home without confronting him about his activities, although she clearly knows and disapproves of what he’s been doing. Though probably well-meaning, this preference for silence grows the distance between Bruce and his parents until they feel like they hardly know each other. After Bruce’s father dies in an accident, Bruce tries to undo that estrangement by tending closely to his mother, calling and writing to her frequently once he goes off to college. She appreciates this effort, and Bruce is deeply devoted to it, but their essential remoteness from one another is never overcome: “I tried to show I loved her but our relationship was a polite, undeclared failure—there was tenderness but no intimacy.” The sad divide between Bruce and his own mother reflects the difficulty he has connecting with other people throughout his life.