The School for Good Mothers

Harriet is Frida’s daughter, who is less than two years old at the beginning of the novel, when Frida loses joint custody of her. Harriet loves her mother, but like most toddlers, her attitude toward Frida quickly changes when they’re no longer together on a regular basis, because her memory is not fully developed. Harriet is used to certain routines and becomes upset and confused when these routines, which are largely based around her needs, are disrupted. Ironically, the employees of the government agency responsible for protecting children do not understand the developmental stages or needs of toddlers, and make decisions based on faulty data.

Even after a year apart, Harriet still remembers her mother and wants to be with her, although, throughout the novel, she also expresses anger, confusion, and resentment. While Harriet may have been slightly traumatized when left alone for two hours (Frida’s original lapse in judgement), she undergoes more trauma as a result of being permanently separated from a mother whom she loves.

Gust is Frida’s 42-year-old ex-husband, a handsome, successful white man with whom she splits custody of their daughter, Harriet, at the beginning of the novel. At first, Frida is devastated to have lost Gust to another woman—his affair with Susanna. However, they are trying to renegotiate boundaries and learn to be effective co-parents.

Although they are divorced, Gust wants Frida involved in Harriet’s life, and wants Frida to be happy. Despite their complicated relationship, Gust ultimately becomes more empathetic through his experience with Frida (and his child by Susanna, Henry), trying his best to support his ex-wife and their daughter by testifying for Frida in court. Despite their issues, Gust and Frida, along with Susanna and Will, are part of an extended network of parental figures who are capable and willing to raise Harriet collaboratively and effectively.

Susanna is Gust’s new girlfriend (and later, fiancée and wife), whom he partook in cheating with and left Frida for. She is 28, white, and comes from wealthy parents who give her a monthly allowance in addition to what she earns as a part-time Pilates instructor. She always wears makeup, is interested in new-age nutrition and health, and has house cleaners take care of her expensive apartment.

Susanna is friendly to Frida, as she is to everyone, but for a long time, Frida resented her because of the affair and her involvement in co-parenting Harriet, suggesting things like gluten-free diets and cloth diapers, which Frida doesn’t agree to. She is well-meaning but naive and sheltered, not realizing the struggles of motherhood or juggling work with personal responsibilities. Frida’s resentment grows when Susanna and Gust gain full custody, resulting in Harriet growing closer to Susanna and even calling her “Mommy Sue-Sue.”

Frida’s resentment toward Susanna is somewhat misplaced, as Gust and CPS are the ones who took everything she had. She eventually warms up to Susanna when the latter has an emergency C-section and births a premature son with health problems. Knowing what it’s like to face losing a child, Frida empathizes with Susanna. In turn, Susanna develops more sensitivity to Frida’s position and needs, even testifying in court to help her regain custody of Harriet.

Renne is Frida’s divorce lawyer and friend. When Harriet is taken by CPS, Frida seeks Renee’s counsel. Renee is smart and reasonable, like Frida, but she’s caught in a system where she can’t always act ethically. She encourages Frida to be complacent and not step out of line or complain, despite disavowing a system that harms women and people of color. Like others in the novel, she urges Frida to downplay certain aspects of herself, such as her race and depression, in order to seem more appealing to a system that is racist, ableist, and sexist.

Although Renee may have Frida’s best interests at heart, her approach of working within the system is ineffective, because the system is broken in the novel’s dystopian version of America. This approach requires Frida to be ashamed of aspects of her identity and hide her emotions, which deteriorates her mental health and, by extension, her mothering. Despite using this approach, Frida and most of the mothers at the school are failed. Overall, Renee tries her best to help Frida keep her daughter, but her advice is misguided and actually contributes to Frida’s suffering.

Frida’s parents, who immigrated from China, are both retired economics professors who helped their extended family immigrate as well. Frida was an only child (her mother had a miscarriage Frida never learned about until adulthood), but her parents were busy working and supporting the rest of the family, and didn’t fawn over her with affection, praise, and play time.

Frida’s therapists tend to blame her parents for her problems, claiming they withheld affection or emotionally abandoned her, causing “intergenerational trauma.” Frida resents this framework because her parents provided for her in all the ways they could. They’re supportive financially and emotionally, calling her often, teaching her things, and helping her without being asked. Chinese culture simply has different parenting norms, such as not using the sing-song “motherese” voice that the mothers learn at the school. Frida’s parents prove that there are multiple ways to parent, and that the American way being taught at the school isn’t the only effective option.

Although Frida’s parents are not personally subjected to the two schools for bad parents, they are still punished for the “multigenerational trauma” that they supposedly inflicted upon their family. When Frida goes to the year-long boarding school, her parents are also banned from seeing Harriet. This is the case for all grandparents dealing with the school: They’re indirectly punished for their children’s transgressions, even though most of them weren’t involved in the transgressions at all, thus creating multigenerational trauma. Later, when Frida loses custody for good, her parents also lose their only grandchild for good.

Will is Gust’s best friend and Harriet’s godfather, with whom Frida has a complicated, semi-romantic relationship. Although Frida initially frames her involvement with Will as irresponsible, her relationship with him is actually essential for her, as someone with barely any support network in a new city. Will is in his late thirties but “young” for his age, in that he’s never been married, has no children, and is on his third advanced degree rather than having a permanent career. He’s earning a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology, and bears some similarity to Frida in terms of how, although he is smart, his academic interests are not lucrative and don’t tend to impress people in the business world (or CPS).

At first, Frida seems to gravitate toward Will because she believes she’s not worthy of anything better. She knows he usually dates sad, “broken” women, and she knows it’s problematic to pursue her ex-husband’s best friend, but she pursues him nevertheless, as if wanting to punish herself for losing her daughter.

While not particularly reliable or stable in his lifestyle, Will is a true friend to Frida in her time of need. For her own good, he doesn’t sleep with Frida right away when she’s in a guilt-ridden state, although he eventually does later. More important than providing physical intimacy, Will listens and empathizes with her, looking after her mental health.

In the end, Will makes a sacrifice for Frida because he disagrees with the court’s decision to bar her from Harriet. While babysitting Harriet, he allows Frida to see her, then leaves them alone for an hour (at Frida’s request). Will is analytical and empathetic enough to surmise Frida’s kidnapping, and although he’s torn because of his responsibility to Gust, he keeps his promise to do “anything” for her, becoming part of the extended network of adults who care for Harriet.

There are around 200 mothers at the titular school, most of whom are not explored in depth. The other mothers act as an ensemble cast of characters, some of whom Frida befriends or learns from, and others whose own plights represent how traits like race, class, and cultural background affect their mothering style and how this style is perceived by authority figures. Although the instructors seem to be grooming the “students” to be wealthy, “white” stay-at-home mothers, this is not what most of them are or will ever be.

The other mothers demonstrate the extent to which it’s potentially problematic for the government to interfere with parenting. For example, the vague terms “abuse” and “neglect” are stretched to include “crimes” like complaining about children on social media or tying a teenager’s shoelaces (which is considered “coddling”). Although the mothers’ racial and class demographics comprise mostly marginalized groups, similar to those who are most likely to be incarcerated for various reasons, their “crimes” are universal, so readers can imagine themselves committing at least one of them.

Most of the mothers experience tragic endings, not by their own fault but because they’re failed by the system. These endings manifest in various ways depending on individual situations, showing how one system fails a variety of people. Some die by suicide after losing all hope, while others escape or drop out of the program altogether; some mothers’ dolls die or do things that end in expulsion and, therefore, termination of parental rights. It is implied that almost none of the mothers regain custody, since Frida performed better than most and did not regain it. This ultimately makes it seem like the purpose of the institution is not to rehabilitate but punish mothers who aren’t “perfect.”

Emmanuelle is the A. I. robot “doll” that the school assigns to Frida. She matches the age, sex, and race of Harriet, and is supposed to be used as a tool to teach Frida to be a good mother. The instructors argue that using A. I. will protect the mothers’ real children from further harm. Ironically, the mothers’ ability to recognize the dolls’ humanity is not seen as maternal but rather defiant, even when they’re trying to prevent the instructors from abusing the dolls.

Over the course of a year, Frida and Emmanuelle become close, showing the extent to which Emmanuelle is “real” and Frida is maternal, despite the school’s horrendous conditions and the instructors pitting the women’s dolls against their real children. In the end, the school severs the ties between the dolls and the mothers as if they were not real.