Moses’s defining personality traits came from his mother’s line

Evidence

In later decades, when Robert Moses was famous almost as much for his personality as for his achievements, observers would marvel at the depth and degree of his outspokenness, stubbornness, aggressiveness and arrogance. They would wonder at the origin of the mold in which he had been formed in so hard a cast. But relatives and friends of the Moses family never wondered. Whatever it was that made Robert Moses the way he was, they knew, whatever the quality that had shaped an unusual—in some ways unique—personality, the quality was one that they had watched being passed, like a family heirloom, from Robert Moses’ grandmother to his mother to him. “Robert Moses,” these people would say, “is Bella Moses’ son.” — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 160

Categorization

• SEED: The closing line — ‘Robert Moses is Bella Moses’ son’ — is a model of how to end a biographical chapter-section on a character’s formation with a memorable verdict, reusable as a rhetorical structure for personality-portrait essays.
• XREF: connects to: Moses’s mother selected elite tutors and prep schools for her sons — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 151; Cultivating his mother’s approval shaped Moses’s public-service ideal — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 158; Moses’ susceptibility to power’s corrupting effect was inherited from his mother — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 1068 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Cultivating his mother’s approval shaped Moses’s public-service ideal #expands (0.95) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 158
• Robert Moses’ arrogance and force of will were inherited from his mother and grandmother #corroborates (0.95) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 160
• Moses’ susceptibility to power’s corrupting effect was inherited from his mother #expands (0.78) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 1068