"Because my father was often absent on naval duty, my mother suffered me to do much as I pleased"
About this Quote
The subtext is class and gender, smuggled in as autobiography. A household tied to the Navy suggests mobility, empire, and an economy that can withstand long absences. The mother becomes the anchored figure, absorbing the emotional and logistical cost of that system. Audubon’s phrasing acknowledges her role while also slipping past it, quickly turning her labor into the condition that enables his self-directed roaming. He’s explaining how a child could spend long hours outdoors watching birds without being pulled into chores, apprenticeships, or stricter schooling.
Context matters because Audubon’s career depends on this kind of self-mythology. Nineteenth-century natural history prized the figure of the solitary observer, the man formed by exposure to the wild. By framing his curiosity as the product of unsupervised latitude, he naturalizes his vocation: he didn’t choose nature so much as drift into it, as inevitably as a bird into migration. The sentence is modest on the surface, but it’s also a soft-launch of destiny.
Quote Details
| Topic | Mother |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Audubon, John James. (2026, January 16). Because my father was often absent on naval duty, my mother suffered me to do much as I pleased. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/because-my-father-was-often-absent-on-naval-duty-125170/
Chicago Style
Audubon, John James. "Because my father was often absent on naval duty, my mother suffered me to do much as I pleased." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/because-my-father-was-often-absent-on-naval-duty-125170/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Because my father was often absent on naval duty, my mother suffered me to do much as I pleased." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/because-my-father-was-often-absent-on-naval-duty-125170/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.
