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Book 1, Chapter 15
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Son, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Pain and Maternal Love
Travel, Fitting In, and Values
Emotion, Individuality, and the Human Experience
Family and Coming of Age
Community and Sacrifice
Summary
Analysis
The supply boat is back, this time a few days before the Ceremony so it doesn’t get held up. It’s hard for Claire to believe she’s been at the Hatchery a year, but Abe has very clearly grown from a newborn into a funny little boy. Abe will be assigned this year, and Claire realizes she’ll now have to figure out how to see him at the Childcare Center. She volunteered there as a child, and now, she wonders how Abe will do with the strict naptime rituals. Will they say he’s failing to adjust? This is a serious crime here, but hopefully they’ll be understanding with such a young child.
While Claire is concerned only for Abe and his “failure to adjust,” it’s worth noting that Claire isn’t adjusting to life as a Hatchery employee with feelings, either. Her focus is only on her son and not on the danger that she might face as someone who isn’t adjusting well to her new duties (to say nothing of her new emotions and goals).
Themes
Two days before the Ceremony, Claire rides over to the Nurturing Center, hoping to sneak a look at the assignments and see where Abe is going. But when she arrives, something is clearly wrong. The man seems angry, and when Claire approaches Abe, another woman snatches him away and asks Claire to change another newchild’s diaper. The woman puts Abe in a crib to scream, and confused, Claire changes the girl. Nobody, not even the other children, acknowledges Abe. Suddenly, the man claims he has a headache and says he’s taking Abe home with him now. The woman argues that it doesn’t matter anymore, but the Nurturer insists that his family likes Abe, and he’d like to have Abe home with them tonight. He tells Claire to come with him, and she complies.
All of a sudden, nobody but Claire and the male Nurturer seem to care about Abe. Leaving Abe in a crib to scream rather than comforting reads, in this context, as pretty callous and cruel—while the man’s argument with the woman is a total mystery to Claire, but it suggests something bad is happening to Abe.
Themes
Claire follows the man and Abe to their bikes, where the man shares that Abe isn’t going to be assigned a family tomorrow. Claire should say goodbye now; he won’t tell her where he’s going, but he does say that Abe isn’t actually the baby’s name. He pedals away. This image of Abe and the man pedaling away will be Claire’s last clear memory of the community. She’ll remember the supply boat still being there in the morning, and waking up to alarm bells because someone is missing. She’ll remember the man standing on the path, calling for Jonas—and telling her that Jonas took Abe Elsewhere. Claire finds herself on the boat in Marie’s arms, telling her that the missing baby is her son. Her next memory is of being at sea in the rain and ending up in the freezing water.
Abe, it seems, isn’t going to be shown any understanding because of his youth: he’s disruptive, and so like the sick or dead fish eggs, he’s going to somehow be removed from the community without any thought for his humanity. The fact that things become a blur for Claire after this suggests this is a hugely transformative moment in her life: it is, after all, the moment she learns just how unaccepting her community is of difference. And with this realization comes Claire’s choice to escape via the river, which leads to the sea—and which, in turn, shows her just how dangerous and unpredictable the natural world can be.
Themes
