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Book 1, Chapter 6
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 man cheerfully greets Claire when she returns to the Nurturing Center, which is busy with preparations for the Ceremony. Claire asks if the man has a spouse and if he could apply for a child and select Thirty-six, but laughing, the man says he already has two children and he and his spouse have “been very satisfied” with them. A newchild starts to whimper. It’s Thirty-six, and Claire offers to get him. The man suggests she walk him in the hallway, and the newchild soon falls asleep on Claire’s shoulder. Claire considers leaving with him, though she knows this is impossible.
Claire trusts this Nurturer and believes he’s helping Thirty-six, so it would be very convenient if he could just continue to do so throughout Thirty-six’s childhood. However, the man’s response reveals how much he’s bought into the community’s detachment: he talks about the children he does have like one might talk about a new appliance that works as advertised. Claire’s desire to leave with Thirty-six highlights her love for her son and her desire to protect and be there for him.
Themes
The man appears next to Claire, and they look out a window. Two boys ride past on bikes outside, and chuckling, the man says one is his son. Then, the man explains that Thirty-six is experiencing “classic failure to thrive”; he won’t sleep. He won’t be assigned a family this year. And since Thirty-six won’t sleep at night and keeps disturbing the other newchildren, he’s been going to the man’s dwelling at night. As Claire hands the infant back to the man, she notices a bracelet on the newchild’s ankle—a security alarm. Though the man says he doesn’t see the point; “[w]ho would want one?” As the man turns away, Claire thinks she hears him call the infant Abe.
Readers might realize that what the Nurturer characterizes as a disorder (the baby’s inability or unwillingness to sleep) is actually pretty normal infant behavior. The community seems to instill conformity in its residents in infancy if no other babies (out of 50!) are dealing with this issue. Asking why anyone would want a tiny newborn also reads as callous, particularly in front of Claire, who very much wants this newborn, her baby.
Themes
