John’s Mother (Martha Turner Ames) Character Analysis in Gilead

John’s mother was a minister’s wife and homemaker. Overall, John writes less about the women in his family than the men, though it’s clear he loved and respected his mother, and he recognizes the hardships she endured as a minister’s wife living on the prairie. She was very serious about home health remedies, which could be tedious for John. She was a hardworking homemaker who occasionally fell asleep in front of the stove after taking some whiskey for her aches and pains, burning Sunday dinner in the process. She was also strong-willed and thrifty, capable of standing her ground when John’s grandfather wanted to give away what little money the family had. She could have a wry sense of humor, playfully imitating John’s grandfather on occasion. She and John’s father retired to the Gulf Coast, partly for her health.

John’s Mother (Martha Turner Ames) Character Timeline in Gilead

The timeline below shows where the character John’s Mother (Martha Turner Ames) appears in Gilead. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Memory, Vision, and Conviction Theme Icon

...where to begin. He, John Ames, was born in 1880 in Kansas; his father and mother were John and Martha Turner Ames, and his grandfather and grandmother were John and Margaret... (full context)

Estrangement and Reconciliation Theme Icon

...a month later, they were so much thinner and their clothes so tattered that John’s mother wept at the sight of them. John and his father, though, looked back on it... (full context)

Christian Faith, Mystery, and Ministry Theme Icon

...and his father would always laugh about the worst parts of their wanderings, and his mother, annoyed by this, just told them never to tell her the details of what they... (full context)

John recalls that in some ways he was his mother’s only child. Before he was born, she’d bought a home health care book, “a good... (full context)

...grandfather would give away everything, even the blankets off his bed. For a while, John’s mother even made him wear his church clothes all the time so his grandfather couldn’t give... (full context)

...a time when some folks approached his grandfather for help, so his grandfather asked John’s mother for money. She fished 45 cents out of a can of baking powder—a generous sum—but... (full context)

...the rain soaked the wash hanging in the yard. John remembers being surprised when his mother jokingly imitated his grandfather, closing one eye and saying, “I know there is a blessing... (full context)

...boys (Boughton was called Bobby then), and they’d sit on the warm roof of his mother’s henhouse eating sandwiches. They both had pairs of stilts and would wander around town on... (full context)

...this house when he was a little boy. Back then it had no electricity. His mother used to love her kitchen, especially the warmth of the stove. She drank a little... (full context)

...put the pieces into a sack and flung it all into the river. Then John’s mother washed the shirts by hand and ironed them until they looked almost as good as... (full context)

...be where his visions came from. Sometimes John would come home from school and his mother would warn him, “The Lord is in the parlor,” and he’d peek into the other... (full context)