As the novel's representative free spirit, Terry Molloy articulates the value of art and might be expected to emerge as the main valorized voice countering the bleak austerity of her son's worldview. However, things turn out not to be that straightforward. The text implies that Terry's embrace of artistic freedom comes at the cost of nurturing Ahmad appropriately. She is drawn as an overstretched single parent who does her best to support her son. However, we are told that she "sees her son often for less than one hour in twenty four" (9), spending most time in her job as a nursing aide at the local hospital. Terry claims little talent for motherhood, and Ahmad disapproves of her lifestyle and regular string of lovers. He sees her as "a victim of the American religion of freedom … though freedom to do what and to what purpose is left up in the air" (167). Terry embodies a different kind of malaise in which the cost of personal freedom is borne by others.

XREF: Connects to the broader tension between individual freedom and communal/familial obligation. Also parallels Ahmad's worldview which esteems austerity over artistic license.

Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, loc. 135