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Pudi
Clemantine, Claire, and Pudi’s mother is modest, religious, and regal-looking. In the backyard of their house in Kigali, Rwanda, Clemantine’s mother has a big garden that is her pride and joy. She divides her time between going to church and tending to her garden. When Clemantine is six and the Rwandan Genocide begins, her mother sends her and Claire to their grandmother’s house in Butare, and they don’t see her again until their reunion on the Oprah Winfrey Show years later, when Clemantine is a teenager. After this, Claire brings her mother and father to the United States. Although she has fond memories of her mother, Clemantine and her mother are unable to connect when they are reunited. Clemantine plans a mother-daughter trip to Europe, but she is frustrated by her mother’s stubborn religious faith. Clementine feels that the horrors that separated her family are inexcusable, while her mother only thanks God for bringing the family back together. Despite their disagreement, Clemantine refers to many of her mother’s teachings in her humanitarian philosophy. For instance, Clemantine’s mother used to tell her and her siblings to share an orange instead of each picking their own. Clemantine wants people to follow this teaching in life—sharing instead of either giving or receiving.
Clemantine’s Mother Quotes in The Girl Who Smiled Beads
The The Girl Who Smiled Beads quotes below are all either spoken by Clemantine’s Mother or refer to Clemantine’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 8
Quotes
It felt surreal and awful. I’d lost track of who I was and who we were to each other. None of us were the same people who’d lived together in that house in Kigali. Those people had died. We had all died.
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Chapter 20
Quotes
The sun felt rejuvenating. Some ants worked on a ledge in the shade, dismantling a fallen mango. […] I felt, at last […] like I’d finally exhaled. I was wearing a floral top, black with huge yellow and green flowers, and a bright yellow skirt. I stood out and I fit in, and I felt taken care of in a way that I felt taken care of nowhere else in the world. It had been so long since I felt like that—like a child, like someone else’s ward.
Chapter 21
Quotes
Insist on knowing the backstory to your gifts and your pain. Ask yourself how you came to have all the things you carry; your privilege, your philosophy, your nightmares, your faith, your sense of order and peace in the world.
I had only a character, a rubric. The girl who smiled beads gave me a way to go through the world […] but I was still looking for a narrative that felt coherent and complete. […] I still, still, after everything […] longed for Mukamana. I wanted her to sit on the side of my bed, talk to me, and make my world feel not just magnificent but logical and whole.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Clemantine’s Mother Quotes in The Girl Who Smiled Beads
The The Girl Who Smiled Beads quotes below are all either spoken by Clemantine’s Mother or refer to Clemantine’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 8
Quotes
It felt surreal and awful. I’d lost track of who I was and who we were to each other. None of us were the same people who’d lived together in that house in Kigali. Those people had died. We had all died.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20
Quotes
The sun felt rejuvenating. Some ants worked on a ledge in the shade, dismantling a fallen mango. […] I felt, at last […] like I’d finally exhaled. I was wearing a floral top, black with huge yellow and green flowers, and a bright yellow skirt. I stood out and I fit in, and I felt taken care of in a way that I felt taken care of nowhere else in the world. It had been so long since I felt like that—like a child, like someone else’s ward.
Chapter 21
Quotes
Insist on knowing the backstory to your gifts and your pain. Ask yourself how you came to have all the things you carry; your privilege, your philosophy, your nightmares, your faith, your sense of order and peace in the world.
I had only a character, a rubric. The girl who smiled beads gave me a way to go through the world […] but I was still looking for a narrative that felt coherent and complete. […] I still, still, after everything […] longed for Mukamana. I wanted her to sit on the side of my bed, talk to me, and make my world feel not just magnificent but logical and whole.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
