Catherine shows that she can take care of herself mainly in that she has been taking care of others. For over four years, she has been taking care of her father. Although many people take care of their parents, Catherine was not faced with a simple task of merely doing chores and managing the house. Her father, Robert, has hypergraphia. Symptoms include a compulsion to write incessantly and sometimes belief in nonexistent …show more content…
Her father, Robert, is the only one that recognizes her talent. He say in their imagined conversation, “Even your depression is mathematical. Stop moping and get to work. The kind of potential you have–” While caring for her father, Catherine also completed an important proof, which Hal, another mathematician, can barely begin to understand. In fact, it is so advanced that at first Hal doesn’t believe that Catherine had written it. Hal says, “I know how hard it would be to come up with something like this. I mean it’s impossible. You’d have to be… you’d have to be your dad, basically. Your dad at the peak of his powers.” Anyone who is able to construct a proof that advanced must have more than the mental capacity to take care of