The Glass Hotel

by

Emily St. John Mandel

Vincent’s mother was a free-spirited young poet when she gave birth to Vincent, who was the result of an affair she had with Vincent’s father, who was married to Paul’s mother at the time. Vincent suspects her mother was unhappy with domestic life, as she’d lived a much freer lifestyle prior to moving to Caiette and becoming pregnant with Vincent. In fact, Vincent’s decision to go to sea is inspired by her mother’s own history of working at sea as a young person. Vincent’s mother named her after the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, whom she admired due to the poet’s ability to elevate herself from a life of poverty to a life rich in creativity and opportunity. When Vincent’s mother is 36, she dies by drowning, and Vincent lives much of her life not knowing whether the death was an accident or a suicide. As Vincent’s life flashes before her in the moments leading up to her own death by drowning, she sees her mother waiting for her on the shore in Caiette, and it’s then that she realizes that her mother’s death couldn’t have been a suicide: she never would have abandoned her daughter. Vincent dies at age 37, just one year older than her mother was when she died, which suggests a sort of resolution, as though, in outliving her mother by one year, Vincent was able to achieve a level of introspection and complete the sort of personal transformation Vincent’s mother wasn’t able to undergo in her lifetime.

Vincent’s Mother Quotes in The Glass Hotel

The The Glass Hotel quotes below are all either spoken by Vincent’s Mother or refer to Vincent’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:
Complicity and Interconnectedness Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2: I Always Come to You Quotes

But does a person have to be either admirable or awful? Does life have to be so binary? Two things can be true at the same time, he told himself. Just because you used your stepmother's presumed death to start over doesn’t mean that you're not also doing something good, being there for your sister or whatever.

Related Characters: Paul (speaker), Vincent, Vincent’s and Paul’s Father, Vincent’s Mother, Grandma Caroline
Related Symbols: Glass
Page Number: 20
Explanation and Analysis:

I don’t hate Vincent, he told himself, Vincent has never been the problem, I have never hated Vincent, I have only ever hated the idea of Vincent.

Related Characters: Paul (speaker), Vincent, Vincent’s and Paul’s Father, Vincent’s Mother, Paul’s Mother
Page Number: 22-3
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4: A Fairy Tale Quotes

Sanity depends on order.

Related Characters: Vincent (speaker), Jonathan Alkaitis, Vincent’s Mother
Page Number: 56
Explanation and Analysis:

In her hotel days, Vincent had always associated money with privacy—the wealthiest hotel guests have the most space around them, suites instead of rooms, private terraces, access to executive lounges—but in actuality, the deeper you go into the kingdom of money, the more crowded it gets, people around you in your home all the time, which is why Vincent only swam at night.

Related Characters: Vincent (speaker), Jonathan Alkaitis, Vincent’s Mother
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 58-9
Explanation and Analysis:

“The point is she raised herself into a new life by sheer force of will,” Vincent’s mother had said, and Vincent wondered even at the time—she would have been about eleven—what that statement might suggest about how happy Vincent’s mother was about the way her own life had gone, this woman who’d imagined writing poetry in the wilderness but somehow found herself sunk in the mundane difficulties of raising a child and running a household in the wilderness instead. There’s the idea of wilderness, and then there’s the unglamorous labor of it, the never-ending grind of securing firewood; bringing in groceries over absurd distances; tending the vegetable garden and maintaining the fences that keep the deer from eating all the vegetables; […] managing the seething resentment of your only child who doesn’t understand your love of the wilderness and asks every week why you can’t just live in a normal place that isn’t wilderness; etc.”

Related Characters: Vincent (speaker), Vincent’s Mother (speaker), Vincent’s and Paul’s Father
Page Number: 61
Explanation and Analysis:

“What I’m suggesting,” Caroline said softly, “is that the lens can function as a shield between you and the world, when the world’s just a little too much to bear. If you can’t stand to look at the world directly, maybe it’s possible to look at it through the viewfinder.”

Related Characters: Grandma Caroline (speaker), Vincent, Vincent’s Mother
Related Symbols: Glass
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9: A Fairy Tale Quotes

“The thing with Paul,” her mother said, while they were waiting for the water taxi on the pier at Grace Harbour, “is he’s always seemed to think that you owe him something.” Vincent remembered looking up at her mother, startled by the idea. “You don’t,” her mother said. “Nothing that happened to him is your fault.”

Related Characters: Vincent’s Mother (speaker), Vincent, Jonathan Alkaitis, Paul
Page Number: 149
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Glass Hotel PDF

Vincent’s Mother Quotes in The Glass Hotel

The The Glass Hotel quotes below are all either spoken by Vincent’s Mother or refer to Vincent’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:
Complicity and Interconnectedness Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2: I Always Come to You Quotes

But does a person have to be either admirable or awful? Does life have to be so binary? Two things can be true at the same time, he told himself. Just because you used your stepmother's presumed death to start over doesn’t mean that you're not also doing something good, being there for your sister or whatever.

Related Characters: Paul (speaker), Vincent, Vincent’s and Paul’s Father, Vincent’s Mother, Grandma Caroline
Related Symbols: Glass
Page Number: 20
Explanation and Analysis:

I don’t hate Vincent, he told himself, Vincent has never been the problem, I have never hated Vincent, I have only ever hated the idea of Vincent.

Related Characters: Paul (speaker), Vincent, Vincent’s and Paul’s Father, Vincent’s Mother, Paul’s Mother
Page Number: 22-3
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4: A Fairy Tale Quotes

Sanity depends on order.

Related Characters: Vincent (speaker), Jonathan Alkaitis, Vincent’s Mother
Page Number: 56
Explanation and Analysis:

In her hotel days, Vincent had always associated money with privacy—the wealthiest hotel guests have the most space around them, suites instead of rooms, private terraces, access to executive lounges—but in actuality, the deeper you go into the kingdom of money, the more crowded it gets, people around you in your home all the time, which is why Vincent only swam at night.

Related Characters: Vincent (speaker), Jonathan Alkaitis, Vincent’s Mother
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 58-9
Explanation and Analysis:

“The point is she raised herself into a new life by sheer force of will,” Vincent’s mother had said, and Vincent wondered even at the time—she would have been about eleven—what that statement might suggest about how happy Vincent’s mother was about the way her own life had gone, this woman who’d imagined writing poetry in the wilderness but somehow found herself sunk in the mundane difficulties of raising a child and running a household in the wilderness instead. There’s the idea of wilderness, and then there’s the unglamorous labor of it, the never-ending grind of securing firewood; bringing in groceries over absurd distances; tending the vegetable garden and maintaining the fences that keep the deer from eating all the vegetables; […] managing the seething resentment of your only child who doesn’t understand your love of the wilderness and asks every week why you can’t just live in a normal place that isn’t wilderness; etc.”

Related Characters: Vincent (speaker), Vincent’s Mother (speaker), Vincent’s and Paul’s Father
Page Number: 61
Explanation and Analysis:

“What I’m suggesting,” Caroline said softly, “is that the lens can function as a shield between you and the world, when the world’s just a little too much to bear. If you can’t stand to look at the world directly, maybe it’s possible to look at it through the viewfinder.”

Related Characters: Grandma Caroline (speaker), Vincent, Vincent’s Mother
Related Symbols: Glass
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9: A Fairy Tale Quotes

“The thing with Paul,” her mother said, while they were waiting for the water taxi on the pier at Grace Harbour, “is he’s always seemed to think that you owe him something.” Vincent remembered looking up at her mother, startled by the idea. “You don’t,” her mother said. “Nothing that happened to him is your fault.”

Related Characters: Vincent’s Mother (speaker), Vincent, Jonathan Alkaitis, Paul
Page Number: 149
Explanation and Analysis: