Previous
Willie
A woman who grows up in a small village on a Puerto Rican plantation and then moves to New York City, where she lives in a housing project in El Barrio and sews garments for an off-the-books garment subcontractor. She laments her sense of alienation in New York, especially due to her informal work and the language barrier she faces, while reminiscing nostalgically about the sense of community she always found in Puerto Rico. She recognizes that, as a woman, she has more autonomy in New York, but also that this shift in gender roles makes Nuyorican men overcompensate in an attempt to hold on to their traditional role as a patriarch. She is deeply disappointed by her son Primo’s laziness and refusal to get a conventional job or an apartment of his own. At the end of the book, she grows terminally ill.
Primo’s Mother Quotes in In Search of Respect
The In Search of Respect quotes below are all either spoken by Primo’s Mother or refer to Primo’s Mother . 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 6
Quotes
Primo’s mother, however, is dissatisfied with the autonomy she “gained” by uprooting herself to New York. Part of that dissatisfaction is related to the individual isolation that pervades much of the U.S. urban experience. It also stems from being forced to define rights and accomplishments in individualistic terms. She longs for the women/family/community solidarity of her hometown plantation village in Puerto Rico.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire In Search of Respect LitChart as a printable PDF.
Primo’s Mother Quotes in In Search of Respect
The In Search of Respect quotes below are all either spoken by Primo’s Mother or refer to Primo’s Mother . 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 6
Quotes
Primo’s mother, however, is dissatisfied with the autonomy she “gained” by uprooting herself to New York. Part of that dissatisfaction is related to the individual isolation that pervades much of the U.S. urban experience. It also stems from being forced to define rights and accomplishments in individualistic terms. She longs for the women/family/community solidarity of her hometown plantation village in Puerto Rico.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
