Previous
Mrs. Patimkin
Aunt Gladys is Neil’s aunt, Uncle Max’s wife, and Susan’s mother. Neil lives with Aunt Gladys and her family in Newark, and their life is working class. The family maintains many cultural markers of being Jewish, like Aunt Gladys’s Jewish dialect and speech patterns. Aunt Gladys constantly frets over making sure that Neil has enough to eat while also trying not to waste any money on food, in contrast to the Patimkins’ excesses. Aunt Gladys frequently judges the Patimkins, saying they are not really Jewish because they live in the affluent suburb of Short Hills and calling them “fancy-schmancy.” She simultaneously worries, however that Neil will become enticed by the Patimkins’ wealth and want to spend less time with his own family.
Aunt Gladys Quotes in Goodbye, Columbus
The Goodbye, Columbus quotes below are all either spoken by Aunt Gladys or refer to Aunt Gladys. 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:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
“A week?” she said. “They got room for a week?”
“Aunt Gladys, they don’t live over the store.”
“I lived over a store I wasn’t ashamed. Thank God we always had a roof. We never went begging in the streets,” she told me as I packed the Bermudas I’d just bought, “and your cousin Susan we’ll put through college, Uncle Max should live and be well. We didn’t send her away to camp for August, she doesn’t have shoes when she wants them, sweaters she doesn’t have a drawerful—”
“I didn’t say anything, Aunt Gladys.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“Millburn they live?”
“Short Hills. I’ll leave the number.”
“Since when do Jewish people live in Short Hills? They couldn’t be real Jews believe me.”
“They’re real Jews,” I said.
“I’ll see it I’ll believe it.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Goodbye, Columbus LitChart as a printable PDF.
Aunt Gladys Quotes in Goodbye, Columbus
The Goodbye, Columbus quotes below are all either spoken by Aunt Gladys or refer to Aunt Gladys. 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:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
“A week?” she said. “They got room for a week?”
“Aunt Gladys, they don’t live over the store.”
“I lived over a store I wasn’t ashamed. Thank God we always had a roof. We never went begging in the streets,” she told me as I packed the Bermudas I’d just bought, “and your cousin Susan we’ll put through college, Uncle Max should live and be well. We didn’t send her away to camp for August, she doesn’t have shoes when she wants them, sweaters she doesn’t have a drawerful—”
“I didn’t say anything, Aunt Gladys.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“Millburn they live?”
“Short Hills. I’ll leave the number.”
“Since when do Jewish people live in Short Hills? They couldn’t be real Jews believe me.”
“They’re real Jews,” I said.
“I’ll see it I’ll believe it.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
