The Mothers

by

Brit Bennett

Nadia Turner Character Analysis

When The Mothers begins, Nadia is a seventeen-year-old black girl whose mother, Elise Turner, has just committed suicide. As such, Nadia finds herself motherless in her last year of high school. Although she’s a top student with disarming intelligence, she begins skipping school after her mother’s death, riding buses all over her hometown of Oceanside, California. Her father, Robert Turner, fails to pay attention to her, instead devoting himself to the Upper Room church community by attending every service and using his pickup truck to run errands for the congregation. As such, Nadia has no adult support in her life, which is why she starts misbehaving by partying, hooking up with older boys, and cutting class. While playing hooky one day, she goes to Fat Charlie’s seafood restaurant and talks to the twenty-one-year-old waiter, Luke Sheppard, who is also the pastor’s son. Since Nadia is used to bottling up her pain and grief, she is fascinated by and attracted to the way Luke wears his pain on the outside, as evidenced by his leg injury from his short-lived football career. Eventually, the two grow closer, and Nadia gets pregnant with Luke’s baby. Nadia quickly gets an abortion, which drives her and Luke apart and becomes an enduring source of grief for the both of them. Throughout the rest of the novel, Nadia struggles to keep the secret of her abortion from her father and even from her best friend and primary confidante, Aubrey Evans. Even though Luke eventually marries Aubrey, he and Nadia rekindle their sexual relationship. Although Nadia internalizes her guilt over her past and present relationship with Luke, her secrets about her affair and abortion are gradually exposed and spread through the Upper Room community, eventually laying waste to the majority of her relationships.

Nadia Turner Quotes in The Mothers

The The Mothers quotes below are all either spoken by Nadia Turner or refer to Nadia Turner. 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:
Secrecy, Gossip, and Storytelling Theme Icon
).
Chapter One  Quotes

All good secrets have a taste before you tell them, and if we’d taken a moment to swish this one around our mouths, we might have noticed the sourness of an unripe secret, plucked too soon, stolen and passed around before its season. But we didn’t. We shared this sour secret, a secret that began the spring Nadia Turner got knocked up by the pastor’s son and went to the abortion clinic downtown to take care of it.

Related Characters: The Mothers (speaker), Nadia Turner
Page Number: 2
Explanation and Analysis:

She was startled by how rarely she had been alone back then. Her days felt like being handed from person to person like a baton, her calculus teacher passing her to her Spanish teacher to her chemistry teacher to her friends and back home to her parents. Then one day, her mother’s hand was gone and she’d fallen, clattering to the floor.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Elise Turner
Page Number: 4
Explanation and Analysis:

Her mother had died a month ago and she was drawn to anyone who wore their pain outwardly, the way she couldn’t. She hadn’t even cried at the funeral. At the repast, a parade of guests had told her how well she’d done and her father placed an arm around her shoulder. He’d hunched over the pew during the service, his shoulders quietly shaking, manly crying but crying still, and for the first time, she’d wondered if she might be stronger than him.

An inside hurt was supposed to stay inside. How strange it must be to hurt in an outside way you couldn’t hide.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Luke Sheppard, Robert Turner
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:

But they had used condoms, at least most times, and Nadia felt stupid for how comfortable she had felt with their mostly safe sex. She was supposed to be the smart one. She was supposed to understand that it only took one mistake and her future could be ripped away from her. She had known pregnant girls. She had seen them waddling around school in tight tank tops and sweatshirts that hugged their bellies. She never saw the boys who had gotten them that way—their names were enshrouded in mystery, as wispy as rumor itself—but she could never unsee the girls, big and blooming in front of her.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Luke Sheppard
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Two Quotes

Her mother had been able to tell when she’d had a bad day at school moments after she climbed into the car. What happened? Her mother used to ask, even before Nadia had said hello. Her father had never been that perceptive, but a pregnancy wasn’t a bad day at school—he would notice that she was panicking, he would have to. She was grateful so far that he hadn’t, but it scared her, how you could return home in a different body, how something big could be happening inside you and no one even knew it.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Robert Turner, Elise Turner
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:

He stepped toward her and the sudden movement made her drop everything in her hands, her purse and shoes and keys clattering to the driveway. She jutted her arms out before he could come closer. He stopped, his jaw clenched, and she couldn’t tell whether he wanted to slap her or hug her. Both hurt, his anger and his love, as they stood together in the dark driveway, his heart beating against her hands.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Robert Turner
Related Symbols: Robert’s Truck
Page Number: 36
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Three Quotes

If you don’t become them, even for a second, a prayer is nothing but words. […] That’s why it didn’t take us long to figure out what had happened to Robert Turner’s truck. Ordinarily waxed and gleaming, the truck hobbled into the Upper Room parking lot on Sunday with a dented front bumper and cracked headlight. In the lobby, we heard young folks joking about how drunk Nadia Turner had been at some beach party. Then we became young again, or that is to say, we became her. Dancing all night with a bottle of vodka in hand, staggering out the door. A careless drive home weaving between lanes. The crunch of metal. How, when Robert smelled the liquor, he must have hit her or maybe hugged her. How she was probably deserving of both.

Related Characters: The Mothers (speaker), Nadia Turner, Robert Turner
Related Symbols: Robert’s Truck
Page Number: 38
Explanation and Analysis:

At her mother’s funeral, in the front pew, she’d felt pity radiating toward her, along with a quiet anger that everyone was too polite to express, though she’d felt its heat tickling the back of her neck. “Who is in a position to condemn? Only God,” the pastor had said, opening his eulogy. But the fact that he’d led with that scripture only meant that the congregation had already condemned her mother, or worse, that he felt her mother had done something deserving of condemnation. […]

How dare anyone at the church judge her mother? No one knew why she’d wanted to die. The worst part was that Upper Room’s judgment had made Nadia start to judge her mother too.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Elise Turner, The Pastor (John Sheppard)
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Nine Quotes

She had hoped for a release. She would go to this wedding and when she watched the two of them kiss at the altar, the part of her that was still hooked into Luke would finally give. A click, then the latch would open and she would finally be free. Instead, she felt him burrowing deeper into her. She felt the dull burn of an old hunger, all the times she had wanted him, the times she had hoped he might hold her hand in public, the nights she had dreamed about when he might finally tell her he loved her.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Luke Sheppard, Aubrey Evans
Page Number: 185
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Ten Quotes

Her father slept in his easy chair in the living room now—lying down was too painful—so she rubbed his shoulders each morning, working out the kink in his neck. She helped him to the bathroom, only as far as the door. He still had too much pride to allow her to help him bathe, although she was increasingly aware that that day was nearing, if not during this injury, then someday in the future, the way all people grew old and infantile.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Robert Turner
Page Number: 201
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Eleven Quotes

He silently dressed but paused halfway, his pants hanging at his ankles. He looked like he might cry, and she turned away. He didn’t love her. He felt guilty. He’d abandoned her once and now he was latching onto her, not out of affection but out of shame. She refused to let him bury his guilt in her. She would not be a burying place for any man again.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Luke Sheppard
Page Number: 221
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twelve Quotes

“Well, you got your husband to protect you.”

“My husband’s the one who hurts me,” she said. “He thinks I don’t know he’s in love with someone else.”

She had never said it out loud before. There was something freeing in admitting that you had been loved less. She might have gone her whole life not knowing, thinking that she was enjoying a feast when she had actually been picking at another’s crumbs.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Luke Sheppard, Aubrey Evans, Russell Miller
Page Number: 240
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Fourteen Quotes

“You did this thing?” he said. “You did this thing behind my back?”

He’d refused to name her sin, which shamed her even more. So she’d told him the truth. How she’d secretly dated Luke, and discovered that she was pregnant, and how the Sheppards had given her the money for the abortion. Her father had listened silently, head bowed, wringing his hands, and when she finished, he sat there a moment longer before standing up and walking out of her room. He was in shock, and she didn’t understand why. Didn’t he know by now that you could never truly know another person? Hadn’t her mother taught them both that?

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Luke Sheppard, Robert Turner, The Pastor (John Sheppard)
Related Symbols: The Golden Baby Feet
Page Number: 264
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Mothers LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Mothers PDF

Nadia Turner Quotes in The Mothers

The The Mothers quotes below are all either spoken by Nadia Turner or refer to Nadia Turner. 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:
Secrecy, Gossip, and Storytelling Theme Icon
).
Chapter One  Quotes

All good secrets have a taste before you tell them, and if we’d taken a moment to swish this one around our mouths, we might have noticed the sourness of an unripe secret, plucked too soon, stolen and passed around before its season. But we didn’t. We shared this sour secret, a secret that began the spring Nadia Turner got knocked up by the pastor’s son and went to the abortion clinic downtown to take care of it.

Related Characters: The Mothers (speaker), Nadia Turner
Page Number: 2
Explanation and Analysis:

She was startled by how rarely she had been alone back then. Her days felt like being handed from person to person like a baton, her calculus teacher passing her to her Spanish teacher to her chemistry teacher to her friends and back home to her parents. Then one day, her mother’s hand was gone and she’d fallen, clattering to the floor.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Elise Turner
Page Number: 4
Explanation and Analysis:

Her mother had died a month ago and she was drawn to anyone who wore their pain outwardly, the way she couldn’t. She hadn’t even cried at the funeral. At the repast, a parade of guests had told her how well she’d done and her father placed an arm around her shoulder. He’d hunched over the pew during the service, his shoulders quietly shaking, manly crying but crying still, and for the first time, she’d wondered if she might be stronger than him.

An inside hurt was supposed to stay inside. How strange it must be to hurt in an outside way you couldn’t hide.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Luke Sheppard, Robert Turner
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:

But they had used condoms, at least most times, and Nadia felt stupid for how comfortable she had felt with their mostly safe sex. She was supposed to be the smart one. She was supposed to understand that it only took one mistake and her future could be ripped away from her. She had known pregnant girls. She had seen them waddling around school in tight tank tops and sweatshirts that hugged their bellies. She never saw the boys who had gotten them that way—their names were enshrouded in mystery, as wispy as rumor itself—but she could never unsee the girls, big and blooming in front of her.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Luke Sheppard
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Two Quotes

Her mother had been able to tell when she’d had a bad day at school moments after she climbed into the car. What happened? Her mother used to ask, even before Nadia had said hello. Her father had never been that perceptive, but a pregnancy wasn’t a bad day at school—he would notice that she was panicking, he would have to. She was grateful so far that he hadn’t, but it scared her, how you could return home in a different body, how something big could be happening inside you and no one even knew it.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Robert Turner, Elise Turner
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:

He stepped toward her and the sudden movement made her drop everything in her hands, her purse and shoes and keys clattering to the driveway. She jutted her arms out before he could come closer. He stopped, his jaw clenched, and she couldn’t tell whether he wanted to slap her or hug her. Both hurt, his anger and his love, as they stood together in the dark driveway, his heart beating against her hands.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Robert Turner
Related Symbols: Robert’s Truck
Page Number: 36
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Three Quotes

If you don’t become them, even for a second, a prayer is nothing but words. […] That’s why it didn’t take us long to figure out what had happened to Robert Turner’s truck. Ordinarily waxed and gleaming, the truck hobbled into the Upper Room parking lot on Sunday with a dented front bumper and cracked headlight. In the lobby, we heard young folks joking about how drunk Nadia Turner had been at some beach party. Then we became young again, or that is to say, we became her. Dancing all night with a bottle of vodka in hand, staggering out the door. A careless drive home weaving between lanes. The crunch of metal. How, when Robert smelled the liquor, he must have hit her or maybe hugged her. How she was probably deserving of both.

Related Characters: The Mothers (speaker), Nadia Turner, Robert Turner
Related Symbols: Robert’s Truck
Page Number: 38
Explanation and Analysis:

At her mother’s funeral, in the front pew, she’d felt pity radiating toward her, along with a quiet anger that everyone was too polite to express, though she’d felt its heat tickling the back of her neck. “Who is in a position to condemn? Only God,” the pastor had said, opening his eulogy. But the fact that he’d led with that scripture only meant that the congregation had already condemned her mother, or worse, that he felt her mother had done something deserving of condemnation. […]

How dare anyone at the church judge her mother? No one knew why she’d wanted to die. The worst part was that Upper Room’s judgment had made Nadia start to judge her mother too.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Elise Turner, The Pastor (John Sheppard)
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Nine Quotes

She had hoped for a release. She would go to this wedding and when she watched the two of them kiss at the altar, the part of her that was still hooked into Luke would finally give. A click, then the latch would open and she would finally be free. Instead, she felt him burrowing deeper into her. She felt the dull burn of an old hunger, all the times she had wanted him, the times she had hoped he might hold her hand in public, the nights she had dreamed about when he might finally tell her he loved her.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Luke Sheppard, Aubrey Evans
Page Number: 185
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Ten Quotes

Her father slept in his easy chair in the living room now—lying down was too painful—so she rubbed his shoulders each morning, working out the kink in his neck. She helped him to the bathroom, only as far as the door. He still had too much pride to allow her to help him bathe, although she was increasingly aware that that day was nearing, if not during this injury, then someday in the future, the way all people grew old and infantile.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Robert Turner
Page Number: 201
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Eleven Quotes

He silently dressed but paused halfway, his pants hanging at his ankles. He looked like he might cry, and she turned away. He didn’t love her. He felt guilty. He’d abandoned her once and now he was latching onto her, not out of affection but out of shame. She refused to let him bury his guilt in her. She would not be a burying place for any man again.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Luke Sheppard
Page Number: 221
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twelve Quotes

“Well, you got your husband to protect you.”

“My husband’s the one who hurts me,” she said. “He thinks I don’t know he’s in love with someone else.”

She had never said it out loud before. There was something freeing in admitting that you had been loved less. She might have gone her whole life not knowing, thinking that she was enjoying a feast when she had actually been picking at another’s crumbs.

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Luke Sheppard, Aubrey Evans, Russell Miller
Page Number: 240
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Fourteen Quotes

“You did this thing?” he said. “You did this thing behind my back?”

He’d refused to name her sin, which shamed her even more. So she’d told him the truth. How she’d secretly dated Luke, and discovered that she was pregnant, and how the Sheppards had given her the money for the abortion. Her father had listened silently, head bowed, wringing his hands, and when she finished, he sat there a moment longer before standing up and walking out of her room. He was in shock, and she didn’t understand why. Didn’t he know by now that you could never truly know another person? Hadn’t her mother taught them both that?

Related Characters: Nadia Turner, Luke Sheppard, Robert Turner, The Pastor (John Sheppard)
Related Symbols: The Golden Baby Feet
Page Number: 264
Explanation and Analysis: